Las Cruces Sun-News (New Mexico) (03/05/12) Milan Simonich

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez signed legislation into law on March 5 that reduces taxes on unemployment insurance in 2012. Although the measure will boost unemployment insurance premiums next year, rates are still less than those set forth by a prior bill. The bill’s sponsors, Sen. John Arthur Smith (D-Deming) and Stuart Ingle (R-Portales), say the aim was to ensure the unemployment fund remained solvent and reduce expenses for businesses. According to Martinez, “As New Mexico job creators are working to get our economy back on track and hire new workers, it’s vital that we provide this temporary tax relief to ensure that we’re not putting barriers in the way of job creation.”

Associated Press (03/03/12)

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which had accused HCS Medical Staffing Inc. of firing a woman who had just given birth, says the company will have to pay $148,000. The EEOC says HCS’s owner made offensive comments about the woman’s pregnancy, and then fired her because she needed to take maternity leave. A federal judge ordered HCS’s owner to pay the woman back pay plus interest, compensatory damages, and punitive damages. According to prosecutors, the owner accused the employee of using prenatal appointments as an excuse for time off, and he fired her through the mail while she was in the hospital.

USA Today (03/05/12) Trevor Hughes

State lawmakers are increasingly concerned about employers using credit reports to screen job applicants, especially since the economic downturn has caused many people to lose their jobs and fall behind in their bills. The practice has been limited by new laws in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, and Washington, and Colorado may soon follow suit. Sen. Morgan Carroll (D-Aurora), the sponsor of the Colorado bill, says there is no connection between work ethic and creditworthiness, and she is concerned that such a practice will create a permanently unemployable class of people.

Chris Ball, operations manager of the staffing firm Express Employment Professionals in Jackson, MS, says hiring managers do not want workers who have filed bankruptcy within the last five years. However, he says some are more willing to hire people with bad credit as temporary employees to allow them to prove their skills and trustworthiness.

Lexology (02/21/12) Roy A. Ginsburg

Suppose a company in a highly competitive industry requires its sales staff to sign a noncompete or nonsolicitation agreement. Several of the company’s sales staff have joined another company that is not a competitor. However, this other company seems to be recruiting the first company’s staff. Does the first company have a legitimate claim based on the restrictions in the nonsolicitation agreement? The short answer is “maybe.”

First, a legitimate claim would be based on several factors, such as state law. Some states would side with the employer, but California and North Dakota, for example, likely would not. Second, the governing state law may be determined by the contract, provided there is a choice-of-law component in the agreement. But even if there is, some courts may decide against enforcing it.

Third, the language of the agreement itself may be a factor. Some courts take the language of nonsolicitation agreements quite literally, so prohibitions on “soliciting,” “inducing,” “convincing,” or “persuading” may be interpreted differently. Other nonsolicitation agreements may be so broadly worded that the company seemingly is prohibiting any interaction, even social interaction between two people who may have known each other for a long time. This kind of language may provide the former employee with an opportunity to contest the validity of the agreement.

The I-9 and E-Verify Blog (02/21/12) Valentine Brown

Regardless of the reason for a voluntary audit, employers need to think through the entire process and all of the attendant results and consequences before conducting a voluntary Form I-9 audit. Employers must determine ahead of time what policies and procedures will be followed to respond to the results of the audit. The first task is to identify the worst possible outcomes of an audit based upon the employer’s individual company characteristics, preferably by working with experienced audit counsel who can assist in developing the worst case scenario list considered in the article.

The most common worst-case scenario that employers encounter during an audit is when Forms I-9 contain errors and the human resource department has to request assistance and possibly documents from employees to make corrections. Another troubling result of an internal audit is when fraudulent I-9 documents are identified. The final worst-case scenario cited in the article is when undocumented employees are identified during the I-9 audit.