Ethos Business Law

Starting in April of 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency will require contractors working on homes built before 1978, and all schools and buildings where kids spend time, to be certified in and use lead-safe practices.  The primary concern with construction or remodeling in buildings with lead-based paint is lead dust.  Therefore, the EPA will require contractors to wear protective clothing, work in wet and clean areas and take other safety precautions.  You can find more information here at the EPA website.

According to a recent article from the Wall Street Journal, some new cases have begun to erode the long-standing view that personal emails sent from a work computer can be monitored by employers.

In the past, most courts have treated corporate computers, and anything on them, as company property. However, in recent rulings, courts have begun to investigate the circumstances around disclosure of policies to employees and other factors. For example:

• In New Jersey, an appeals court ruled that an employee of a home health-care company had a reasonable expectation that email sent on a personal account wouldn’t be read.
• In San Francisco, a federal appeals court ruled that employers that contract with an outside business to transmit text messages can’t read them unless the worker agrees.

While it is probably too early to make any sweeping generalizations about this trend, it certainly suggests that employers need to review their policies, practices and training to make sure they do not run afoul of this evolving issue.