The work-from-home culture because of the last pandemic has become the first choice of many individuals. A solution that was temporary has now become a long-term strategy for many organizations.
This change brings along a number of legal complications, especially within employment law. The way to deal with this new reality, for the employment lawyers who represent both employers and employees alike, is important.
This requires an in-depth understanding of the unique legal issues that are caused by working from home remotely. In this blog we will discuss how employment lawyers can help their clients navigate the WFH challenges from remote work policies to wage compliance, and across jurisdictions concerns.
Ways to Adapt WFH Culture for Employment Lawyers
For employment lawyers, adopting work from home culture can feel overwhelming, but with the right use of tech tools and a proper understanding of work policies, it can become more manageable.
Leverage Cloud-based Technology
One of the key factors in adopting WFH culture is leveraging the right technology, including legal case management software, legal billing software, legal accounting software, and more.
Most of the employment lawyers have numerous documents, need to track case timelines, have secure communication with clients and legal tech tools can help with it.
For the WFH environment, it is crucial to have reliable case-tracking software, e-signature platforms, video conferencing tools, and more.
These platforms can automate daily tasks and integrate with your current platforms.
Drafting of Remote Work Policies
Perhaps one of the most salient steps employment lawyers can help clients with is to develop a broad-ranging remote work policy. Such policies need to very clearly detail what employers and employees are responsible for in a remote work environment. Not every position is suited for remote work, and for which exact roles this would be suitable should fall into the purview of a greater policy. Attorneys can also advise clients to develop explicit, uniform criteria to determine which employees can work from home.
Lawyers must develop policies with consideration of local, state, and federal legislation applicable to the location. Additional concerns also involve data security and privacy; remote work generates a higher level of risk regarding potential data leakage. Employment lawyers should advise clients on drafting confidentiality agreements and verify whether measures to protect data are up to par with the legal requirements, if any, under the GDPR or CCPA.
Invest in Cybersecurity Measures
If you are a lawyer planning to work from home or guide your clients through the process of work-from-home situation. Make sure to invest in robust cyber security features. While working remotely, most of your data will be online. You will be communicating with your peers through an online platform, and all the documents will be stored online, so having software that is equipped with security features is crucial.
Navigating Wage and Hour Issues
Wage and hour laws can get murky in a work-from-home environment, especially when it comes to tracking employees’ hours. Employment lawyers should make sure their clients remain in compliance with the FLSA and any other applicable state wage law. Working from home often leads to a blurring of boundaries between work and personal time, resulting in incidental overtime. Lawyers should advise clients on monitoring and controlling overtime for non-exempt employees to avoid litigation.
Third, there should be proper record-keeping of time in a WFH environment. Employment lawyers should advise clients to continue to use proper mechanisms to track employees’ time to avoid wage law violations. A related issue is meal and rest breaks. Employers should confirm that in this home workplace, employees have continued to take all legally required breaks, and employment lawyers should advise clients that they may want to monitor adherence to these laws.
Managing Employee Misconduct in a Virtual Environment
The virtual work environment has its unique complications in dealing with employee misconduct and underperformance. Employment lawyers will have many opportunities to consult their clients on implementing efficient performance management processes relevant to the virtual workplace. This can include clear articulation of the performance expectations, regular check-ins, and putting down in writing any failure to perform according to standards. Discipline also gets much more complicated in a virtual environment.
Lawyers should help clients develop processes for documenting disciplinary infractions, whether time theft, misuse of company resources, or bad behavior in virtual meetings. The elasticity to handle these issues remotely involves a good deal of thoughtfulness in terms of documentation and clarity as it pertains to the disciplinary process.
Enhance Virtual Networking Skills
Networking has always been a huge part of legal practice. And even during work from home, it is important to have virtual networking skills. Employment lawyers should take advantage of online platforms like LinkedIn and legal forums to connect with other professionals in the industry.
Attending virtual meetings, taking part in legal meetings, participating in webinars, and joining online legal communities is an excellent way to maintain a professional presence and build a network even while working from home.
Cross-Jurisdictional Employment Issues
With more employees working from different locations-sometimes across state or international borders-cross-jurisdictional issues have become increasingly complex. Employment lawyers need to advise their clients on the legal complications in dealing with employees working in different jurisdictions. Of concern is compliance with tax and payroll laws. Employers could also be bound by different tax laws in different jurisdictions and must meet their obligations, usually payroll taxes and contributions toward social security.
An employment lawyer should help clients with the development of transparent policies for remote employees on matters involving tax residency and payroll procedures. Furthermore, one must ensure that compliance is in place with the observance of local employment laws, especially when a client has staff working in different states or countries. These laws govern issues related to minimum salary, annual leave, and dismissal procedures, and labor lawyers must ensure that their clients observe the varying legal requirements of whichever state or country their employees happen to be located in.
Keeping Up with Changing Legislation and Case Law
The increasing culture of WFH has, in turn, fostered new legislation and case law that employment lawyers have to carefully monitor to keep their clients compliant. For instance, some states may impose laws that compel remote work in any case of a public health emergency. Lawyers should keep track of such legal developments in order to advise clients on how to adjust their policies and practices accordingly. In addition, courts can expect to address more and more cases related to disputes over remote work, from wage claims to wrongful termination. The case law is still developing, and employment lawyers need to keep a keen eye on how those judgments could impact their clients’ remote work arrangements and adjust their legal strategies appropriately.
Supporting a Diverse and Inclusive Remote Workforce
Diversity and inclusion are features of any workplace, and working from home can add other dimensions of difficulties. The employment lawyers should assist their clients in providing an inclusive virtual workplace that would accord equal treatment and opportunities for growth and development for employees working remotely. This is because certain employees may develop a sense of disconnection or be overlooked for important projects or promotions while working in a virtual environment, and employment lawyers should advise their clients on ways to avoid the problem.
Conclusion
With the WFH culture developing day by day, the role of an employment lawyer becomes very vital in taking clients through this changed landscape. Employment lawyers can advise their clients on developing policies for remote working to ensure that they are in conformance with wage and hour laws, thus helping businesses and employees adjust to the legal realities of working from home. With proactive efforts, attorneys can ensure that their clients are well-equipped to meet the legal challenges presented by a world where remote work is becoming the new norm.