Our speaker for the April 19 meeting was Crystal Twitty of TLC (Twitty Legal Consulting), a firm that specializes in Employment Law and Human Resource Compliance. Crystal is a long-time Virginian. She went to Hampton HS, Hampton University and Regent Law School before doing work with the government, and then branching out into her own firm.
Crystal stressed that increasingly over the years, federal and state governments have enacted more laws affording protections to employees. If you are a business owner or human resource professional, you need to know what those protections are and how to respond to challenges that arise in the workplace.
Crystal talked about the “top employment law trends”:
1) Discrimination in the work
• Sexual orientation – LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) – while it applies to
record keeping, harassment, hostile environment, the thing in the news most recently is
which bathroom can be use. The law supports sexual orientation not sex at birth.
• Physical and Mental Disabilities – that substantially limit major activities
• FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) & wage claims
2) No Retaliation by employers for someone taking action
3) Press and Social Media – must be careful to punish conduct not speech unless the speech
is disruptive to the workplace, violent or violates stated office policy.
TLC offers employment counseling, HR support, EEOC support, training, and compliance
counseling. For further information go to www.twittylegalconsoulting.com.
