Tag Archives: wages

April 2013
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Employment Law

Tennessee Tells Local Governments to Stay Out of The Wage and Benefit Arena

On April 11, Governor  Haslam signed into law a  bill prohibiting local governments from mandating health insurance benefits, leave policies, hourly wage standards, or prevailing wage standards that deviate from existing requirements of state and federal law as a condition of doing business with or within the jurisdiction of the local government.

The new law means that cities and towns in Tennessee may not establish prevailing wages higher than the federal minimum wage and/or state or federal prevailing wages. Any such local laws already on the books  are no longer enforceable.

The new law also  includes a prohibition against local governments enacting so-called wage theft laws, stating that enforcement of existing wage statutes  is the right of the state and federal governments.

This is definitely a win for employers.

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March 2013
2 Comments
Employment Law

Is Your Confidentiality Policy Legal?

Most employers have a confidentiality policy that is distributed to all employees.  Most of those policies broadly define confidential information.  But if your policy defines confidential information to include employee wages and salaries is it legal?

A confidentiality policy that prohibits employees from discussing wages, salaries or other terms and conditions of employment is illegal because it violates the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).  This fact was reinforced in a recent ruling  against Aerotek Inc. after two of its recruiters in Nebraska told several employees they were not allowed to disucss their wages as a condition of employment.

Employers need to make sure that their confidentiality policy gives specific examples of what constitutes confidential information, such as business plans and profit margins, and does not prohibit employees from discussing their wages, salaries, working conditions or other terms and conditions of employment.

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