Back to the Future–Tip of the Week

Last week, the Employers Counsel Network had its annual meeting, this year in Charleston, South Carolina.  ECN is composed of the law firms in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Canada, that write the monthly employment law letters published by M. Lee Smith Publishers.  My firm, Miller & Martin, is the Tennessee representative in this group.

As you can imagine, we talk about a lot of labor and employment law stuff at these meetings.  This year, politics was an unavoidable topic, just as it has been for this blog during the past several months.

The topic is compelling because of the historic nature of the presidential election this year.  For a bunch of labor and employment lawyers, it’s also compelling because of the large number of proposed pieces of labor and employment legislation just waiting for a new president and Congress.  Unless you count GINA (and it’s too early to know if GINA counts), the last piece of major federal L&E legislation was the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993.  Before then, it seemed that employers had something new to contend with almost every other year.  We may be headed back to those days.

As noted previously on this blog, the following proposed laws (not a complete list) will be seriously considered in 2009:  Employee Free Choice Act; Civil Rights Act of 2008; ADA Restoration Act; FOREWARN Act; Fair Pay Act; and a bill making sexual orientation a protected class.  Here’s the tip:  if you think you have a lot on your plate now, you’ll need a much bigger plate should some of these proposals become law.

It’s important, therefore, for you to know where McCain and Obama stand on these proposed laws, as well as where candidates for seats in the U. S. House of Representatives and U. S. Senate stand.  Then it’s important to watch what happens to these proposals in 2009.  My suggestion:  hold on to your hats as if you were in a Back to the Future movie.