Seyfarth Synopsis: Within the last few years, the California Legislature has amended laws related to an employee’s right to inspect personnel records, intending to ensure employees have access to those records. Since then, employers have seen more such requests, claims made before the Labor Commissioner, and even lawsuits over production of personnel files. We offer here some tips on
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What To Do About Employee Thieves—Catch Them If You Can!
Seyfarth Synopsis: When employee theft occurs, employers must be cautious in investigating, avoiding self-help, and in deciding if and how to terminate the offending employee.
Companies work hard to hire trustworthy employees, but employee theft can occur in any business. Employee theft takes different shapes—you may discover an employee is stealing products, supplies, confidential information or money from the
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About That Trade Secret Leak: It’s From Inside The Business!
Seyfarth Synopsis: Protecting trade secrets from employee theft requires more than using an NDA when onboarding employees. If businesses want to protect confidential information, they need a cradle-to-grave approach, reiterating employee obligations regularly, including during exit interviews. (Yes, you need to do exit interviews!)
Headline stories in intellectual property theft tend to involve foreign hackers engaged in high-tech attacks to
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The Not-So-Wild West: Practical Tips for California Investigations
By Ann Marie Zaletel, Jamie Chanin, and Andrew Crane
It is important that employers across the country conduct proper investigations into workplace complaints. But these investigations are especially critical in California for a couple of reasons. First, employees can bring claims in California courts resulting from a botched investigation. An employee can sue for failure to prevent harassment, discrimination, and/or retaliation if the employee makes a protected complaint, and the employer either fails to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation, or does not take the appropriate remedial actions after the investigation. Second, many plaintiffs’ attorneys in California retain HR experts to opine on all of the things the employer should have done to investigate, but didn’t, or all of the ways the employer botched the investigation.
These California-specific issues have led to more frequent requests from clients for guidance on how to conduct proper and solid investigations. Here is a general overview of things to keep in mind when investigating employee complaints.
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A Rock and a Hard Place: Keeping a Lid On Internal Workplace Investigations
By Jill Porcaro and Andrew Crane
As a well-intentioned employer, you know it is best to promptly investigate employee claims of workplace harassment and other employee misconduct. Due to the obvious sensitive nature of these types of investigations, you implement a policy prohibiting your employees from discussing the investigation with anyone other than the investigator. You believe that your employees will feel more comfortable disclosing truthful information to the investigator knowing their confidences are assured. Great policy, right?
- Not exactly. Now, more than ever, the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) is cracking down on blanket confidentiality policies that prohibit employees from discussing investigations of employee misconduct, including the right to discuss discipline or disciplinary investigations involving their fellow employees, on the grounds that these policies “chill” employees’ rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”).
In Banner Health System d/b/a Banner Estrella Medical Center, 358 NLRB No. 93 (July 30, 2012), an employer had a policy of prohibiting its employees who made complaints from discussing the matter with their coworkers while the investigation was ongoing. The Board held that this rule violated the NLRA because an employer must justify a prohibition by showing a “legitimate business justification that outweighs employees’ Section 7 rights.”
Well then, I’ll just nicely suggest to my employees not discuss the details of any investigation. That ought to solve the problem, right?
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