More than ever business owners in the alarm industry need to pay careful attention to events taking place in Washington DC. While it had been long predicted that President Obama and a Democratically-controlled Congress would bring about significant change to the laws regulating the American workplace, no one anticipated quite how rapidly that change would come. In just over a week after taking office, for example, President Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Act which changes the laws on pay discrimination. If your firm has 15 or more employees it will apply to your business. This law is named after the plaintiff in a pay discrimination suit whose case was thrown out of court by U.S. Supreme Court last year. Under the proposed EFCA, if the union gets a majority (51%) of the workforce to sign card saying they want a union, the union is in and there would be no election. This process would make much easier for a union organizer to follow the workers in their company marked vehicles and just have them sign a card. This is something that should concern every alarm company owner. Business should soon expect other changes in workplace law. Based on the President’s actions of issuing the new Executive Orders at the exact same time he announced formation of his Task Force on Middle Class Working Families, the President appears to be integrating labor law reform with efforts to stimulate the economy. While it is impossible to accurately predict what will occur, future areas under serious consideration include:

• Expanding federal discrimination laws to protect individuals on the basis of sexual orientation.
• Tightening the rules for classifying individuals as independent contractors or employees. Misclassification exposes companies and workers to liability for withholding taxes, unemployment compensation taxes, workers’ compensation, and various tax deductions.
• Additional efforts to make it easier for unions to organize by narrowing the definition of a supervisor. Supervisors in the private sector have no rights to unionize.

Security Alarm Business owners must closely monitor developments to insure the workplace remains in compliance. To have an effective voice in the formation of all the laws that affect your business contact your representatives in Washington and locally.

Provided by 'The Handshake,' The Official Publication of the Alarm Association of Florida