Back in the 70’s and 80’s the apex of cool for kids was the Atari 2600 home video game console and its cartridge based games – based on their arcade counterparts – with one of the most popular being Missile Command.
The premise was simple: Defend your cities from incoming missiles, by firing off a limited number of your own. You had to be smart, combining shots to remove more than one incoming threat as they came at you faster and faster each round. If you missed – you lost a city. Lose all your cities, and it’s game over.
Fast forward to late 2017 and the image of that old game is a perfect analogy for what employers are facing. As neighbors with their own ballot initiative systems, OR and WA tend to inspire each other for progressive employment law street cred – and both States have been busy.
Like Missile Command, there’s a whole lotta incoming, that will take additional effort on your part to manage. What’s different this time, is that if you choose to ignore it, you’re facing serious financial consequences for your business that could easily reach $10K, $100K or more depending on the size, scale and setup of your business and its HR foundation.
If any of these circumstances describe your business, you could be easily vulnerable to the expanded claims of discrimination and new financial penalties in Oregon State law – regardless of your motivation or intent:
- Job descriptions: Don’t have/not updated in last few years
- Employee Handbook: Don’t have/not updated in last few years
- Performance Review Process: Don’t have/not updated in last few years
- Performance Reviews: Don’t do them/don’t write anything down
You have until January 1st, 2019 to plan, budget, make pay and process adjustments where needed and get things in order. At that point, a private right of action can be files and the liabilities stack up. This is potentially a very costly adjustment to some businesses, so it’s best to start early so you have time to respond.
Give us a call so we can assess your situation.
