Recently in Other Employment Law Issues Category

Non-compete clauses (NCCs) can be an excellent method for protecting a business' financial interests when hiring an employee with access to valuable information. The protection they offer a company does no good, however, when they're struck down as unenforceable by a court.

How do you know if your NCC is enforceable? FindLaw's page on NCCs provides a helpful overview. But there are some more tips that Philadelphia-area employers will want to keep in mind.

Most workers in Pennsylvania are considered at-will employees.

This basically means that you have no legal right to keep your job. So unless you have an employment contract that guarantees your job for a specified period of time, you can be fired for any valid reason.

And employers generally have no obligation to give you any advance notice. So they could, in fact, tell you to pack your bags today.

Did you know that Comcast's recent Philadelphia lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court has legal roots in employment law?

Well, that might be a slight overstatement on the relationship between employment law and the current class action lawsuit Comcast's case. However, much of the law used in Comcast's case comes from an employment discrimination case that was heard before the Supreme Court last year.

But wait, the Comcast case has nothing to do with employment law. It's a case involving Coast's business practices and its monopoly in the cable market in Philadelphia, right?

With Election Day fast approaching, let's address a few last-minute employment issues leading up to the election.

The final jobs report before Election Day is in, and it's showing that the unemployment rate is at 7.9 percent.

GOP challenger Mitt Romney pounced on that figure, stating that it was lower than what then-candidate Barack Obama promised when he ran for election back in 2008.

But as President Obama's team points out, he took office in one of the worst periods of unemployment and since then, the nation has seen 25 consecutive months of job growth.

Does a child molestation accusation suffice to remove a person from his current job?

The Transportation Security Administration says "no." This is in response to its hiring of a former priest who had been defrocked after allegedly molesting two girls, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The TSA didn't complete a background check before hiring ex-priest Thomas Harkins and allowing him to conduct pat-downs as a security officer at Philadelphia International Airport, the Inquirer reports.

It's possible that random drug tests at work are more palatable now that professional athletes are consistently tested. Maybe you feel a little better about being checked after finding out that Lance Armstrong has been hounded for years and years after his multiple tour wins.

Like Armstrong, who was formally charged after all those years, an operator in the reactor control room of the nuclear plant in Limerick, Roger Devlin, was found to be under the influence of alcohol after a random drug test in July, according to the local Journal Record News Service. The test, given by Exelon Nuclear, was followed by a review of Devlin's activities during the day, which found no errors. Still, he was promptly removed from his duties, and a request was sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for his operator's license to be revoked.

So can your boss make you take an on-the-job drug test as well?

Just like in the mob movies, nobody likes a stool pigeon. In more modern parlance, nobody likes a snitch. This is certainly something that Philadelphia knows plenty about, a good example being the case of a man who would not give up the identity of the people that shot him.

Now there are reports that this "no snitching" culture has expanded from the streets to the workplace. In the last year, there have been more than 1.2 million Americans that were physically assaulted by a coworker, according to Forbes. Many of these attacks were based on retaliation for coworkers blowing the whistle on their company. Almost 1/3 of all people that came forward to report bad behavior or unsafe policies were victimized by physical harm.

But is this the same thing as retaliation? Not quite.

Well, the Chicago teachers went back to work after a little more than a week of striking. However, it's not looking so good for the NHL Players Association as they enter the fourth day of a lockout. At least the two sides have begun negotiations, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman locked out players from practicing because the collective bargaining agreement expired over the weekend, according to the NHL's website. Without the ability to play in the United States, many hockey stars are taking out insurance policies and signing contracts with European teams to continue playing, according to the Inquirer. The insurance is to cover their team in the case the lockout ends and the player cannot start because of an injury.

What happens to those who signed with European teams when the lockout ends? Will they be breaching their NHL contracts?

Of course you get time off for Christmas because it's a designated federal holiday. But what if your religion has holy days that don't coincide with federal or state holidays?

Currently, we are in the time of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, two Jewish holidays for which many faithful take time off from work.

Do these followers just have benevolent bosses, or are employers required to allow workers to take time off for religious holidays?

OSHA: It's a dirty word to some and heaven-sent to others. Short for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA is the agency that regulates employers to ensure that workplaces are safe for employees.

OSHA regulations reach every part of the workplace and even encompass some consumer products. You're sure to have seen "OSHA-approved" labels on any number of products at your local hardware store.

But what do you do if you think these regulations are being violated and your workplace is unsafe? This is where your buddy OSHA comes into play.