What Employers Are Concerned About Now: The Littler Survey

Labor and employment firm Littler surveyed in-house counsel, HR professionals and other executives to determine which legal and regulatory issues are currently of greatest concern. Among the most pressing were the new and pending overtime exemption rules and the prospect of greater liability exposure as the result of possible changes in the definition of joint employer. “For employers, the burden of having to monitor not only their own employees, but also the employees of subcontractors is especially daunting and has the potential to have a huge impact on industries throughout the country. It is certainly worth keeping a close eye on,” said Michael Lotito, co-chair of Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute. Other issues of concern included aggressive government polices with regard to whistleblowers, in particular the prospect that compliance officers could become less effective or possibly even leverage insider knowledge to become relators and secure bounties. Certain potential discrimination claims were also a significant concern.