Employment law program planned

TURNER — "Ten Tips to Avoiding the Commission, Courts, and Claims" will be presented by attorney Rebecca Webber on Thursday, March 10 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Leavitt Area High School, as part of the SAD 52 Adult Education program. Register at msad52.maineadulted.org or call Adult Ed at 225-3478 or 897-6384.

Human resources is often stuck right in the middle between the employees and top management, trying to follow the laws and care for the company’s most important resource (its workers) while keeping costs down and weeding out management headaches.

For small businesses, compliance is especially difficult because there may be no budget for a separate human resources professional, a problem even more vexing for nonprofits. While following the golden rule is one of the easiest ways to minimize risk of legal claims, it is ultimately much more complicated than that. There are many requirements that must be met even if all employees are being treated decently and some number of legal precautions are actually counterintuitive.

That being said, this program will help identify a number of areas that seem to crop up the most and that will help companies reduce even further the risk of claims, Commission actions, and court cases. The discussion will range from harassment policies to wage and hour issues to religious accommodation to personnel files and more.

If there are particular issues attendees would like to see addressed (issues as opposed to requests for legal advice on a particular matter), please send those in advance to rwebber@lcwlaw.com. The cost for this program is only $30, all of which will go to the adult education program to sustain further community based programs.

Since 1994, Rebecca Webber has practiced law at Linnell, Choate & Webber LLP. Prior to that, she was in the litigation department of Palmer & Dodge in Boston, MA. She focuses her practice on employment law and commercial litigation.