Minimizing the Risk of Wage and Hour Litigation in the Hospitality Industry

Andrew W. Singer leads Tannenbaum Helpern's Employment Law Practice Group, which offers a full spectrum of legal services from everyday counseling to complex employment litigation. With extensive experience in all aspects of employment law, he regularly advises companies with various human resource and compliance issues:

Employment

• draft and negotiate employment agreements and executive compensation structures
• draft non-competition, non-solicit and confidentiality agreements
• counsel companies on restrictive covenant enforceability
• draft and negotiate severance agreements

Regulation/Compliance

• wage and hour compliance, including overtime computation and exemptions from overtime, minimum wage, payment and deduction from wages, commissions and draw structures, bonus and incentive compensation, governmental wage and hour audits, recordkeeping, and federal and state labor laws
• independent contractors, misclassification analyses, consulting agreements, and governmental audits
• privacy concerns, including federal and state workplace privacy laws, off-duty conduct laws, drug-testing, and background and credit-checks

HR Policies

• social media policies and technology and e-mail usage policies
• anti-discrimination, including sexual harassment, retaliation, accommodating the disabled and religion, and handling internal corporate investigations
• employee termination, WARN Act compliance, and COBRA
• human resource and compliance counseling, including drafting and reviewing employee handbooks, drafting job descriptions, vacation and PTO policies, family and medical leave compliance, military leave policies, and issues related to employment applications

Litigation & Dispute Resolution

• defend discrimination and retaliation claims based upon sex, race, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, disability, age and any other protected class in federal and state courts
• handle discrimination matters filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the New York State Division of Human Rights, and the New York City Commission on Human Rights
• A frequent speaker on employment law topics and emerging trends, Andrew regularly conducts training seminars for supervisory and managerial employees covering equal employment laws and sexual harassment, the Americans with Disabilities Act, wage and hour laws, independent contractor misclassification, workplace violence, social media policies, the Family and Medical Leave Act and other leave policies, workforce reduction and the WARN Act, and other employment law developments.

Andrew has been selected for inclusion in New York Super Lawyers for 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Jason B. Klimpl is a partner in the firm's Employment, Staffing Law, and Corporate practice groups and Associate General Counsel to the New York Staffing Association. Jason advises clients on a broad range of employment matters, such as:

Equal opportunity actions and policies, including allegations and charges of discrimination or retaliation before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the New York State Division of Human Rights, the New York City Commission on Human Rights, and policies and respectful workplace training relating to disabilities, religious accommodations, sexual harassment, and all other forms of discrimination;

Employment agreements and restrictive covenants, including drafting and reviewing employment agreements and provisions relating to bonuses, draw and commission structures, non-solicitation, non-competition, and confidentiality;

Healthcare reform implementation, including affordability and minimum value requirements, employer coverage determinations, employee status reviews, filing and notice mandates, compliance penalties, and small business tax credits;

Independent contractor and consulting issues, including drafting and reviewing consulting agreements, performing independent contractor misclassification analyses, and responding to governmental audits;

Reductions in force, including the federal WARN Act and analogous state laws, protected group termination impact analyses, separation agreements and general releases, and COBRA;

Technology and privacy concerns, including drafting and reviewing online social media policies, technology and e-mail usage policies, federal and state workplace privacy laws, off-duty conduct laws, drug-testing, background and credit checks; and

Human resource and compliance counseling, including drafting and reviewing employee handbooks, job descriptions for overtime and ADA compliance, disability and family and medical leave compliance, vacation and PTO policies, military leave laws, meal and break requirements, jury duty and voting leave, and employment application issues.

In addition, Jason has prepared numerous articles and presentations on employment matters, such as:

• sexual harassment and workplace discrimination;
• the Americans with Disabilities Act
• healthcare reform (the Affordable Care Act)
• social media policies
• wage and hour laws
• independent contractor misclassification
• the Family and Medical Leave Act and other leave policies
• COBRA
• workforce reductions and the WARN Act
• governmental enforcement initiatives
• various developments in employment law
• staffing industry concerns