By Julie Proscia – SmithAmundsen LLC – www.salawus.com On Memorial Day Weekend, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced an initiative to focus more on the safety and health of temporary workers after a recent spate of temporary worker fatalities. This initiative is now being put into action. Assistant Secretary of Labor, David Michaels, made the announcement by releasing a memoran ...

By Jeff Glass – SmithAmundsen LLC – www.salawus.com Employers who use restrictive covenants to protect their client base should take heed of the Illinois Appellate Court for the First District’s decision in Gastroenterology Consultants of the North Shore, S.C. v. Meiselman, M.D., et al. In 1996, defendant Dr. Meiselman formed the plaintiff corporation with three other doctors. All agreed to non-competes tha ...

By Jacqueline Lentini McCullough – SmithAmundsen LLC – www.salawus.com On April 30, 2013, Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) began automating the issuance of Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record for foreign nationals entering the United States by eliminating the paper form I-94. The form I-94 will be available in an electronic format for foreign national nonimmigrants arriving by air and sea, and does not ...

By: Jeffrey A. Risch, Esq., Labor & Employment Practice Chair, SmithAmundsen LLC, jrisch@salawus.com On May 7, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) regulation requiring businesses to post notices of worker rights to engage in pro-union activities, or be subject to punishment, violates federal labor law. (Nat’l Ass’n of ...

By Sara Zorich – SmithAmundsen LLC – www.salawus.com Last week the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act” (S. 744) was introduced.  Since then, there have been a series of congressional hearings to discuss the provisions of the Act.  It is clear from the hearings that there are strong opinions on the bill from many communities that would be affected.  In general, the bill ...

By Nancy E. Joerg, Esq., Managing Shareholder – St. Charles Office, Wessels Sherman Joerg Liszka Laverty Seneczko P.C., St. Charles, Illinois, (630) 377-1554, najoerg@wesselssherman.com, www.wesselssherman.com Recently I wrote an article announcing the alarming and aggressive new IDES audit policy.   The article has “gone viral,” and I am getting calls from Illinois business owners, accountants, controllers ...

by Samantha Esmond – SmithAmundsen LLC – www.salawus.com On April 12, 2013, the United States House of Representatives voted to approve a bill called “Preventing Greater Uncertainty in Labor-Management Relations Act” (H.R. 1120). The bill was sponsored by Representative Phil Roe (R-TN). According to Roe, “President Obama’s so-called recess appointments left the board in a state of legal chaos and my bill wi ...

by Rebecca Dobbs Bush – SmithAmundsen LLC – www.salawus.com While most of us have had just about enough when it comes to discussing Health Care Reform, the discussions aren’t even close to being over.  The most anticipated provisions, the individual and employer mandates, are scheduled to take effect January 1, 2014. Many employers are focused on more of an internal analysis – evaluating whether they need t ...