Owning and running a business isn’t an easy task to accomplish. Whether you are managing your stock, drafting sales agreements, managing your payroll, or trying to reach out to your existing and potential clients through sales and marketing, you’ve probably got your hands full at any particular time. If you are lucky and your business is doing well, you can hire a few educated and experienced experts to help you handle the workload.
You can also hire a business lawyer to help you come up with legally binding sales agreements. All business owners need to understand the laws that govern their operations and protect their employees. If you want to avoid numerous legal battles that can bring down your business, it's critical to know which labor laws apply to your business you that you can follow them strictly. Here the four labor laws that all businesses should understand.
Family Medical Leave Act
If you own and run a business that has at least 50 employees, then the law expects you to grant all qualifying employees up to 12 weeks of paid medical leave in a year. However, you need to understand all the eligibility and coverage requirements. The Family Medical Leave Law doesn’t provide carte blanche for a worker who decides to take an extended leave. Although you can’t interfere with, prevent, or even deny any qualifying staff member taking qualifying leave, you still have the right to ask all your employees to fill out specific request forms and submit all the necessary medical documentation to prove that the requested leave qualifies under the family leave Act.
Fair Labor Standards Act
We can’t deny the fact that a significant number of small business owners usually rely on independent contractors to keep their operations running. However, depending on the relationship established between your small business and the contractors, these workers may be considered as your employees by the federal government. The FLSA Act requires all employers to pay overtime to all covered employees who work more than 40 hours a week at the rate of one-and-a-half times the employee’s regular hourly pay. Any employee that is ineligible for overtime compensation must fall under the FLSA’s professional, administrative, or executive exemptions.
Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)
OSHA is both the agency and act that governs the safety and health of workers in the workplace. This can range from simple issues, such as printer fumes, to much more complicated issues such as life-threatening injuries. The OSHA Act requires you to have a safe, clean, and hazard-free workplace. This Act gives your employees the right to file complainants without fear of interdiction. You should consider working with a business law firm that will help you maintain records of serious accidents and injuries if your business has at least ten employees.
Immigration and Nationality Act
The primary reason why you must complete the I-9 forms within three days of recruiting your new employee is because of INA. The immigration and nationality Act applies to all aliens authorized to stay and work in the United States under specific nonimmigrant visa programs such as 1B1, H2A, H-1B, and H-1C. Every business in the United States must comply with this law. Keep in mind that if you fail to complete form I-8 your business can be in trouble down the line should your workers be ineligible to work in the United States.
Are you a business owner in Lakeville, MN looking for a reliable and trustworthy business law firm to handle the legal aspects of your enterprise? Contact Betsy Larson Law Office today for quality services. We offer responsive and personal legal representation as well as legal counsel to businesses and individuals. Talk to us today and let us help you push your business to the next level by avoiding expensive lawsuits.