Due to having 4 federal cases, 2 state cases & 3 union negotiations & related labor-management matters ongoing at the same time & most nearing some form of resolution, my posting this Spring & Summer has been sporadic.

On the other hand, union activity seems to be increasing among small businesses in the private sector.  I’m not sure if this is due unions’ believing that desperate times call for desperate measures, or if it’s because management is intensifying efforts to combat union activity because of the high & rising pension & healthcare costs associated with union collective bargaining agreements. Nevertheless, there’s been a definite increase in union activity among private sector small businesses. As troubling as this is for business, this has been great for the government (justifies regulatory jobs) & practitioners like me.

Moreover, it’s worthwhile to note that for the first time in U.S. history, the number of unionized employees in the public sector now exceeds the number of unionized employees in the private sector. Glad to see that government employees are protected from the abuses of their employers (us).

Furthermore, I’ve seen an increase in self-represented employees and former employees filing lawsuits & other charges against businesses. Again, when the economy is bad, and people are desperate, they’ll do what they have to do to make ends meet, with or without legal representation.

For more information about what’s happening in labor & employment law & human resources, check out my LinkedIn group, Charles Krugel’s Labor & Employment Law & Human Resources Practices Group.

I’m excited to announce that on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 from 11:45 AM – 1:15 PM, I’ll be presenting the “Employment Law and HR Primer for Small Businesses”  co-sponsored by the Northbrook Chamber of Commerce, www.northbrookchamber.org, and SCORE, www.scorechicago.org.  The seminar will be held at the Northbrook Chamber, 2002 Walters Ave., Northbrook.  It costs $15 in advance and $20 at the door and includes lunch.  You may register by phone at 847-513-6361.  Comprehensive handouts/resources will be provided.

Topics to be covered include:

• The importance of human resources and good management
• When to use employment agreements
• What is and is not appropriate to ask job candidates
• Employee screening and risk assessment
• Unemployment compensation
• Federal & state laws likely to be encountered by businesses
• Sample documentation for employee records

I’m now writing articles for “Doctor of Dentistry’s Greater Chicago Edition.” This is a hard copy “business and lifestyle magazine for dentists.”

My articles focus on the human resources & labor & employment law issues encountered by dental practices. You can read the 1st article, from the December/January issue, which discusses background checking and screening here (PDF).

Ironically, this coincides with the 1/13/09 statement from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that a Chicago dental practice settled a federal sexual & religious harassment & retaliation lawsuit for $462,500. You can read the actual settlement document (“consent decree”) here (PDF). Obviously, this suit & settlement will be a future topic.

On Monday, October 27, 2008, and Monday, November 10, 2008, along with attorney Elliot Richardson of Horwitz, Richardson and Baker, I’ll be presenting “Legal Assistance for Entrepreneurs” and “Small Businesses and Human Resources” seminars at Orly’s Cafe, 55th and Hyde Park Blvd., 1660 E 55th St, Chicago.  These presentations are organized and run by Foreign Exchange Services of Illinois, Inc.  They’re part of their Green Tech Experience forums.  For more information about these seminars, please contact Stephen Anderson, sjanderson@fesii.com, who handles business operations at FESII.  Each session runs from 6:30PM – 8:30PM and costs $10 (includes dinner buffet).

As an addendum to my last post about Avvo, check out the following:

Besides taking an extraordinary amount of time to complete a profile, and besides not being able to cancel an account (i.e., “unclaim” a profile), I’ve discovered another issue with Avvo’s online lawyer rating system.

When a lawyer is in the back-end of the platform, just filling out their profile, the system shows you how complete your profile is.  For example, my profile is 30% complete.  My current ranking is 6.3 out of 10, which according to Avvo is “good.”

So, my “good” rating is to some unknown extent based on my profile being less than 1/3 complete.  I don’t know what my rating would be if I took the time and effort to complete my profile, and I’m not going to tell you how long it took just to complete less than 1/3 of my profile.  However, I’ve yet to see a valid reason to spend the extra hours to complete my profile (which I can’t “unclaim”).

But here’s the real issue:  On an attorney’s “Public Profile” page, the page displayed to the public, Avvo doesn’t show to what extent the profile is completed.  So, a visitor to the site (a prospective client) doesn’t know that my “good” rating, or any attorney’s rating, may be a reflection of a partially or fully completed profile.  Consequently, this leads me to restate my finding that Avvo’s system is defective.

Hopefully, Avvo will update their technology and system and get it right (or close to right–how about 30% right :-) ).