Workplace litigation boom predicted as plaintiff lawyers change focus
Employment law experts Seyfarth Shaw are predicting an increase in legal action against employers in the US - on a range of issues including equal opportunities, mobile working and pension plans.
The firm has published a report predicting a growth in activitiy in 2015 as more lawyers see an opportunity to encourage action among employees. Gerald Maatman, a Chicago-based Seyfarth partner, said: 'If you’re an employer in 2015 and you want to comply with the law and manage litigation risks, you must focus on payroll and wage-and-hour issues. You have a migration of plaintiff lawyers into that area, I think, because of low barriers to entry.'
Virtual working
The firm predicts, for example, greater use of state courts - which could be seen as easier places to run class actions. A potential area for action is the hours that employees work in a time of mobile working - and whether, for instance, answering an email on a mobile phone counts as starting the clock on the employee's hours. Source: Forbes
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