We wanted to see what our loyal Blawg visitors are experiencing.  At our most recent webinar, we asked our more than 1,500 attendees:

Are you seeing an increase in employment law claims?

Looks like the experts are right. A whopping 0% of our audience reported a decrease in claims. 100% are either seeing an increase or no change. Interestingly, though, only 5% reported a substantial increase.

Here are the full results:

• Yes, substantial increase — 5%
• Yes, modest increase — 28%
• No change — 64%
• No, modest decrease — 0%
• No, substantial decrease — 0%

Click here, here and here for more on this topic. As always, thanks for your participation!

The highlights:

• 53% said they would favor “a new law that would make it easier for labor unions to organize workers.” 39% are opposed.
• 70% of Democrats favor such a law, as do 52% of Independents.
• 60% of Republicans are opposed.
• Only 12% are following EFCA “very closely” and only 22% “somewhat closely.”

None of the questions dealt specifically with the “card check” piece of EFCA. As the Gallup organization noted: EFCA is a “complex piece of legislation with numerous components, making it difficult to assess overall support for the bill among a population that is largely unaware of it.”

The firm’s Fifth Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report identifies several major trends in the world of employment lawsuits:

1.  Class Actions Up.  The financial meltdown is resulting in increased class action litigation, including ERISA class actions seeking recovery for 401(k) losses and post-RIF discrimination and WARN Act cases.  In fact, employment-related class actions are the #1 exposure driving corporate legal budget expenditures.

2.  Wage & Hour Up.  The volume of wage and hour suits continues to “increase exponentially.”  The number of Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) class actions outnumbered all other employment-related private suits.  The biggest wage and hour explosion is at the state level, particularly in California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas.

3.  $$$ Up.  Settlements/damages paid out on workplace class actions continues to rise, especially in ERISA cases.  The top ten settlements alone in 2008 totaled more than $18 billion.

What will 2009 bring?  Probably more of the same, unfortunately.  Each of the above trends is expected to continue to grow in 2009.  “The findings in this year’s report illustrate that the trend we’ve analyzed for the past few years continues unabated:  there is an explosion in class action and collective litigation involving workplace issues,” said J. Stephen Poor, Seyfarth’s Managing Partner.

The lesson?  Take proactive action NOW.  Identifying and addressing class action vulnerabilities should be at the top of every employer’s list of 2009 priorities. 

In other words, imagine what the world’s toughest plaintiffs’ firm would sue you for and fix it before they get a chance.

• 63% of employees shop online using their work computers
• 55% of employers allow online shopping but don’t educate employees about potential risks
• 26% of employees shop online without adequately checking web site security
• employees between the ages of 18-24 spend the most time shopping online and take the most risks
• employers lose an average of $3,000+ in productivity per employee due to online shopping

In addition to lost productivity, failure to address the above activity can result in viruses, spam, phishing and other horrible things that can cripple a company’s IT infrastructure. 

Almost all companies have implemented computer usage policies to deal with these issues.  But many of them are ridiculously overbroad and inconsistently enforced, which can result in morale issues and discrimination lawsuits.

So, what should employers do?

1. Implement a reasonable computer usage policy and consistently enforce it.
2. Train employees on appropriate computer usage before the holidays and follow up with reminders.
3. Implement basic security measures such as spam filters, patches, firewalls and intrusion detection systems and update them regularly.
4. Monitor networks for suspicious activity, respond quickly to threats and remind employees to notify management of potential problems.
5. Conduct periodic risk assessments and update the usage policy and security measures accordingly.

For more from ISACA on this topic, click here.