This past week Richmond-headquartered Fortune 500 company Genworth Financial announced that it would lay off about 400 positions in a cost-cutting move. Shortly after that announcement, in discussions with other employment counsel around the country, it became clear that Genworth is not alone in making such a mid-year adjustment.  Many colleagues noted they have just [...]

Starting May 7, 2013, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will accept only the new version of the I-9 employment eligibility verification form.  You may recall that on March 7, 2013, the USCIS  announced that employers should begin using the new version of the I-9 form immediately, but allowed sixty days for employers to update [...]

On a construction site, isn’t it enough to protect employees from existing hazards? And what does it matter if no one actually got hurt? The Sixth Circuit recently answered these questions: “No it’s not enough,” and “Absolutely, it matters.” In All Erection & Crane Rental Corp. v. OSHRC, a crane rental company supplied a crane [...]

Businesses often acquire other businesses through an asset purchase, rather than a stock purchase, so that the buyer does not inherit the liabilities of the seller.  Not all business owners realize that federal labor law violations often are excluded from state law contract law, and buyers may be liable for seller’s violations no matter what their [...]

If you are a health care provider or someone who routinely performs work involving patient health information on behalf of a health care provider, you need to know about the HIPAA/HITECH Final Rule. Since the passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH), the Department of Health and [...]

Beginning January 1, 2014, most U.S. citizens and legal residents will be required to have qualified health care coverage pursuant to the Affordable Care Act (“Act”).  The Act requires employers defined as “large” to offer that coverage for its “full-time” employees or pay a penalty.  Employers must act now to determine if they are required to [...]