WESTERN COLORADO HUMAN RESOURCE ASSOCIATION
2017 SPRING CONFERENCE – APRIL 19 2017
SESSION DESCRIPTIONS
OPENING GENERAL SESSION
2017LEGISLATIVE CASE LAW UPDATE. Annual update of the recent changes to Colorado and federal law, the Colorado and the United States’ Supreme Court’s recent employment decisions, and additional discussion regarding how the new Presidential administration will affect employers. For example, will the new administration seek to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act? Will the new administration override the Department of Labor’s recent efforts to redefine the independent contractor determination or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s efforts to cover more protected classifications? Will the President curtail the National Labor Relations Board’s efforts regarding the at-will doctrine and employees’ use (both on and off the job) of social media sites to discuss employment issues? This seminar will address these and other current and emerging employment issues.
CONCURRENT AM BREAKOUT SESSIONS(pick one)
SESSION A. THE ADA AND THE ADAAATODAY:CURRENT TRENDS AND STRATEGIES FOR COMPLIANCE. Last year, the EEOC received more than 28,000 charges filed under the Americans With Disabilities Act. Disability-related litigation is also on the rise since the Americans With Disabilities Act Amendments Act was passed. With this increase, now is a good time to review your organization’s ADA/ADAAA procedures. In this session, we will discuss the practical lessons we can learn from recent ADAAA court cases and apply those lessons to everyday situations. This session will also discuss policies that employers should implement in the workplace as well as what to do when a (potential) ADA/ADAAA issue arises in your organization.
SESSION B.EMPLOYERS AND IMMIGRATION LAW:NAVIGATING THE HIRING PROCESS. Recent controversy over immigration and new changes to Form I-9 have focused attention on the impact of work authorization and immigration requirements in the workplace. This seminar will answer your questions about complying with workplace authorization requirements such as: How do I complete the new I-9? Do I need to be a document examiner? Is E-Verify right for my company? Why are there so many types of visas? How do new state laws interact with federal law? How can my company avoid an audit of our hiring procedures? Who audits our company’s I-9 compliance, and how do we prepare for the audit? What changes are likely under the new administration? Find the answers to these and many more questions in this seminar.
AFTERNOON GENERAL SESSION
PANEL ON PREVENTING/RESPONDING TO BULLYINGfeaturing local experts from behavioral health, legal, law enforcement, and corporate HR disciplines. Topics to be covered may include: corporate culture & policies; awareness and prevention; employee training; appropriate interventions/responses from the organization and from observers/bystanders.
CONCURRENT PM BREAKOUT SESSIONS(pick one)
SESSION A. THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT – STATUS
OF CHANGES TO SALARY-BASIS TEST AND THE EXPANSION OF COLLECTIVE/CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS AGAINST EMPLOYERS. As you know, there have been numerous efforts to change the Fair Labor Standards Act over the past two years. This session will discuss the status of those efforts and what policies/practices organizations should implement to prepare for the expected changes. Additionally, class action and collective lawsuits against employers for alleged off-the-clock issues have dramatically risen in the last couple of years. This session will discuss policies and practices organizations should implement to reduce potential liability to protect against those claims. Finally, this session will focus on day-to-day wage issues for both small and large organizations. Among the topics we will cover include rest and lunch breaks, issues caused by paid-leave policies, telecommuting policies, “on-call” time, training, and travel time.
SESSION B. HOW TO MASTER INTERNAL WORKPLACE INVESTIGATIONS. Imagine: One sunny spring afternoon, an employee visits you in your office and says her coworker made a comment related to her gender this past week. As you think about what to do with this information, another employee walks into your office and says it has been bothering him that he saw the same coworker print a joke with the company’s printer about a colleague’s religion and leave the joke for the colleague on his desk a couple weeks ago. You know you should do something, but where do you begin? In this session, we will discuss when you need to conduct an internal workplace investigation, what a workplace investigation should include, pitfalls to avoid in conducting an investigation, and how to successfully conclude an investigation.
SESSION C. “WHATCHA GONNA DO WHEN THEY COME FOR YOU?” PREPARING FOR
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AUDITS AND INVESTIGATIONS. The U.S. Department of Labor and the Colorado Division of Labor have broad investigatory authority. As courts have observed, the DOL“can investigate merely on suspicion that the law is being violated, or even just because it wants assurance that it is not.” And DOL investigations and audits are different from inquiries under other employment laws. This session will discuss the difference between federal Wage and Hour Division and OSHA procedures, how proper recordkeeping can make responding to DOL inquiries simpler, the employer’s responsibilities during an investigation, how to prepare for an audit, how audits and investigations are resolved, and how Colorado Division of Labor’s investigations differ from federal DOL investigations.
Session detail as of March 6 2017 – subject to change. Continuing education credits through SHRM and HRCI are pending. Contact for more information.