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HR Hot Topics |
Crisis Management
Natural disasters, workplace violence, and terrorism create emergencies that can bring affected businesses to their knees -- temporarily or permanently. All three phenomena pose legal issues that must be considered and addressed by HR and management. Related articles on Crisis Management From coast to coast, many of the nation's workplaces have been the victims of floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards, lightning, explosions, cave-ins, and fires. And the threat of a bird flu pandemic which could wreak havoc on business and their employees continues to make news. We realize now that business crisis planning must be expanded from isolated company-specific disasters to plans for massive regional damage such as the total collapse of the telecommunication infrastructure that followed Hurricane Katrina. America's workplaces also have become venues for virtually all forms of violence -- from verbal threats to murder. No industry has escaped the occurrence of workplace homicide. And all targets of major terrorist attacks in the U.S. have been workplaces -- the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, and media outlets and government offices that received mail laced with anthrax. Businesses can't plan only for how to protect their employees and keep their operations running during an emergency. They also must ensure that they don’t run afoul of employment laws such as the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, just to name a few.
Related articles on Crisis Management from the State Employment Law Letters
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