Bosses get lesson in employment law

Nearly 130 business management and human resource experts from the Tri-parish area filled a ballroom at the Quality Hotel on Thursday to receive a practical lesson on how to deal with employees and avoid being sued.

Lawyers from the firm of Fisher & Phillips led the South Central Industrial Association employment law breakfast briefing and covered topics from sorting through government agencies to avoiding employment practices that could result in lawsuits.

“It’s a lot of practical things,” said Ed Harold as he prepared for his presentation. “I’m going to talk about avoiding lawsuits.”

Co-presenter Tim Scott said that workshops like this are important in industrial areas such as southern Louisiana.

“Down here you get so many people offshore and so many people in shipping that there are a lot of employee issues,” Scott said.

The program covered a variety of concerns including hiring issues, keeping and calculating time worked on the job, salary basics, fair labor standards for both blue collar and white collar workers and employment violations.

One significant element of this educational event was that participating human resource personnel were able to earn 2.25 credit hours with the Human Resources Certification Institute.

“We’re looking at labor law and dealing with individuals,” said SCIA board member Willard Robison of Seacor Marine.

While those in attendance were mostly human resource specialists, local attorneys and other professionals were also offered an opportunity to attend.