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LABOR, EMPLOYMENT AND EMPLOYEE BENEFITS LAW

Employers today are faced with a myriad of laws and regulations which make every employment decision increasingly complex and fraught with obstacles. In today's litigious climate, disgruntled employees, former employees, unsuccessful applicants and labor unions are more likely to utilize laws protective of employees' rights to seek remedies for real or perceived wrongs in the workplace, such as claims of reasonable accommodation for a person's disability and a sexually hostile work environment.

The firm's Labor and Employment Law Department is expert in assisting its management clients in complying with all aspects of labor and employment laws and regulations in a manner intended to deter litigation or, if litigation arises, to provide vigorous, cost-effective representation. We have developed a specialty representing clients in the hospitality field.

For those clients with a unionized workforce, our services include negotiation of collective bargaining agreements, including, where appropriate, development of strike contingency plans for continued operations, assistance in the administration of collective bargaining agreements, including representation at grievance and arbitration proceedings and advice on contract interpretation and compliance, representation before the National Labor Relations Board, including judicial enforcement proceedings, and in representation of unfair labor practice proceedings. We also assist in developing and implementing strategies for those clients exposed to union organizing campaigns.

For all our clients, we regularly provide advice to ensure compliance with applicable local, State and Federal employment, labor and wage-hour laws. We believe that the review and analysis of employment decisions at an early stage is often the best safeguard against employment discrimination and other employment-related litigation.

On a day-to-day basis, we counsel our clients on compliance with the increasingly complex laws and regulations governing employment, including the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act, WARN, COBRA, ERISA, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, OSHA, National Labor Relations Act, and the equivalent state and local laws and regulations. We assist our clients in drafting employment policies and personnel manuals, employment applications, drug testing programs, individual employment agreements, plant closing notices and agreements, termination notices, separation agreements and investigating claims of sexual harassment. We are available to give seminars to managers and supervisors on such sensitive workplace issues as employee discipline, sexual and other forms of harassment and employment discrimination, workplace violence and other current workplace issues.

Our expertise also covers representing management in employment discrimination litigation before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and State and local human rights agencies and in State and Federal Courts and representation of employers in actions under the Labor Management Relations Act and numerous provisions of New York's Labor Law. The attorneys in the Labor and Employment Department work closely with and benefit from the broad trial expertise of Kane Kessler's litigation department.

The attorneys in the Labor and Employment Department also serve as co-counsel on Taft-Hartley Employee Benefit Funds, as well as providing counsel to employers on all forms of employee benefit programs.