LIVE: Bulletproofing Your Business: Top 5 Employment Law Mistakes

本站添加: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]I think we're live. So, uh, good afternoon everyone and welcome. Thank you for joining us today. My name is Senna Sahin and I'm the co-founding attorney at Capital Law Partners. Uh, we're a business litigation and immigration firm serving clients in DC, Virginia, and Maryland. And for immigration purposes, uh, we offer services nationwide. I've spent the last five plus years representing businesses and contacts in employment adjacent disputes. And one thing I've learned is that the most expensive lawsuits are almost always the ones that could have been avoided with the right advice. So that's exactly why um we're having this webinar today. And before we get started, a few quick notes before we dive in. So this is a YouTube live.

[00:00:45]Please drop your questions in the chat as we go.

[00:00:50]We'll try to get to as many as we can.

[00:00:52]And today's session is general legal information and educational content. It isn't legal advice and watching this does not create an attorney client relationship. Of course, we have to give this uh disclaimer. So, if you want advice on your specific situation, we'll share how to reach us at the at the very end of this webinar.

[00:01:13]So, today I'm thrilled to be joined by my friend and colleague Apas Saduk. APAS is a business and employment attorney licensed in Maryland and DC with over 20 years of experience handling complex employment and labor matters.

[00:01:30]Before going into private practice, he worked at the US Department of Labor where he handled federal employment law, wage and our regulations and employer investigations.

[00:01:41]So he's seen these issues from the government side as well as the employer side. Today he's the founder of SAD Law Group where he advises businesses, executives and employers on workplace disputes, compliance matters, discipline and termination, wage and our issues and risk management.

[00:02:00]And before we hand it over, I want to say um Abas and I've had the privilege of working together on several matters where business litigation and employment law overlap. And I can tell you from uh personal experience, he's exactly the person you want in your corner on these issues. Alas, uh welcome and thank you for being here today.

[00:02:23]>> Thank you, SA. I really appreciate it.

[00:02:25]It's an honor to be here today and I've also worked with you on a few matters.

[00:02:29]It's been great and I'm excited to um address any of your questions and talk to um the audience. Thank you.

[00:02:37]>> Yes. So, here's what we're going to cover today. Employment law is one of those areas where small mistakes can lead to enormous liability. And we're talking about six and seven figure verdicts, EOC investigations, Department of Labor audits, class actions, and the businesses that get hit hardest are usually not bad actors. They're just growing companies that didn't know what they didn't know. Right? So over the next uh 30 to 40 minutes uh we're going to be uh discussing the most common mistakes that you see employers make and more importantly how uh we can avoid them. So let's jump in. Uh we'll get started with one of the biggest issues businesses face today. What is what is one of the most common employment law mistakes employers make that can expose them to serious liability?

[00:03:30]That's a great question, Sandra. Thanks for asking it. Um, you know, one of the biggest things is as as you said, you know, as businesses grow and scale, a lot of times employers, they really don't have the either the time or the bandwidth to document, you know, employee performance, when employees start, when they stop, uh, any issues of misconduct or performance concerns. So, what I would say to answer your question, the number one thing that I see is um lack of documentation. And we're all busy. Everybody's busy. We're running our business. You know, you're you're a business owner. So am I. So frequently we just don't find time to documentes where maybe an employee did something which really doesn't reflect our business or maybe they said something which we really don't think they should have said or we may not even have time to always document their time when when did they come in when did they come out or to tell them hey it's really important to document your time. So I would say the number one thing I see is lack of documentation because as a business owner, as a startup, as a growing business, we're focused on, you know, the front end, you know, recruiting business, maintaining business, growing our operation. So we feel like, oh, I'll do it later. I'll get to it later. And often we don't. So lack of documentation is the number one thing that I frequently see.

[00:05:02]>> Yeah. I mean, that's very important. And do you think that this is something more common in companies of certain size for example startups or mid-market companies or do you see it across the board?

[00:05:15]>> You know it it I I think it's really with startups um with established companies I find they do have a system in place and sometimes they may have um a trusted HR partner or they may use some type of um uh time entry system. um or they may even have an attorney on board. So with larger companies, I find this is less of an issue. They've kind of crossed this hurdle. But it's really with the startups or smaller companies that are really focused on growth.

[00:05:46]They're, you know, as as business owners, they the owners frequently want to grow their business, establish, you know, high quality or high caliber relations with other businesses, um etc. So that tends to be the focus rather than uh oh you know this person is not really reporting their time accurately or um this person is saying things that they shouldn't say any things like that.

[00:06:12]So it's really just a smaller or midsize businesses that find this to be very common >> and that's a great foundation for the rest of our conversation. So let's drill into specifics. We hear a lot about businesses mclassifying workers as independent contractors. Why is this such a major legal risk and what should employers be paying attention to?

[00:06:37]>> Yeah. Um it's a huge legal risk. I have several clients uh who you know as as employers unfortunately they mclassify their employees and and it's common to happen because again for the same things we were just speaking about because we're all so busy. It's like, okay, instead of signing on with a payroll company, let me just $10.99, write a check, um, pay them based on their hours, and I'll deal with it later.

[00:07:05]Well, guess what? Later never comes. And frequently, what happens is, um, there's there's two things. On the one hand, um, you know, as business owners, when we do that, we're not paying the employees like we're not paying their taxes, right? So, a lot of times we need to correctly classify their unemployment taxes, um, their state taxes, their federal taxes, none of that is being taken out. Um, so that's a problem from the regulatory side. And on the other hand, if they truly are employees, which could mean, and again, this is not legal advice. It's just generally, you know, just some thoughts I'm sharing. Um, I if if they're furthering our business interests, in other words, you know, we own law firms. So if we're hiring suppose employing a parallegal um it's hard to say that that person might be a 1099 versus someone who's you know you know taking out the trash or um vacuuming the the the the rugs you know that's something that's outside of our scope of employment. So we need to be careful because we can expose our business to a lot of liability. So on the one hand there's a regulatory compos component with the government and on the other hand there's a legal component where we could be violating laws federal or state laws as well by the mclassification.

[00:08:27]>> Yeah. And I think one thing to um just be mindful of is that mclassification can sit dormant for many years before it blows up essentially right. Um so just because nothing is happening on that end today doesn't mean it's not illegal risk.

[00:08:45]>> Absolutely. Um >> yeah, absolutely. Um you know, we've we've worked on we've seen situations where, you know, employee I've had it many times where business owners say, "Hey, this person and I we worked great together. We were a team and you know, we we had dinner, we had lunch, we hung out, etc., etc." And then all of a sudden there's a fallout and um the employee or the contractor feels that there was something unjust or they were wages were wrongfully withheld etc. They seek counsel and next thing you know the business owner is facing a lawsuit um from the employer controller which is saying you know essentially it's it's like a wage theft claim stuff. We all need to be very mindful of that.

[00:09:33]>> Okay. So, let's move from how people come in to how they leave. Many business owners struggle with employee discipline and terminations.

[00:09:43]What is one of the most common mistakes that employers commonly make when firing employees or and how they can better project themselves from wrongful termination claims.

[00:09:56]>> I think really what I see is a lot of time owners don't focus on performance.

[00:10:02]So it's fine to train employees or to take disciplinary action but as business owners they need to focus on performance not other factors. So a lot of times um the employer or the owner might find that well I just don't like this person.

[00:10:19]They're not doing their job. They're creating a toxic environment. So I always try to bring it back to the performance. Well what is your business?

[00:10:27]Okay, you operate a shipping company or you have a warehouse and the employees not being productive. They're not tracking, you know, invoices of items that are being unloaded from the trucks or the warehouse, you know, the stock in the warehouse is not being um adequately uh maintained or documented performance related um discipline or termination. I think as long as there's enough documentation, it's fine. But a lot of times it ends up becoming an emotional, well, I don't want this person here. I don't like this person. They're just bringing me down and bringing down other employees, etc., etc. I would say the best advice is to stay away from that.

[00:11:08]Focus on performance. As an attorney, that's my goal is to try to bring the employer, the owner back to performance.

[00:11:16]What are your goals? What's the mission?

[00:11:19]um you know do you do shipping, do you do cleaning um what is the focus of your business and how is this person's performance affecting your business? Um I think as long as we stay in that area, we're okay. Um but a lot of times I find it becomes very emotional and it's like I don't want this person doing I don't want to deal with this person. It's not really a performance issue.

[00:11:46]>> Okay. And uh what if a business owner is about to fire someone let's say tomorrow? What are the two or three things you would would um advise them?

[00:11:58]>> I would say um make sure there's documentation. Obviously focus on the performance. You know whatever your letter is and your reason for termination it has to be based on performance. Um and then document it.

[00:12:11]Ideally there'll be several instances um you know for for suppose for example a warehouse worker you know on on this date in January in March in April I told you you know I emailed you and said you know you weren't documenting our supplies the warehouse supplies correctly I emailed you I gave you a chance to improve I did it on numerous occasions yet despite you know these warnings despite this counseling you still haven't improved and you know your performance is adversely affecting the outcome of our business. I would say that's the ideal situation where we have documentation and where we can show that it's based on performance. I think that's the safest way to terminate someone. Of course, you know, you and I both know as attorneys, we can't predict the outcome of any type of um situation. But what we can't do is we can't advise our clients and say, "Well, this is the safest path. We don't know what's going to happen. We can't make a guarantee." But by following this, we think you will be protecting yourself and your business. I would say really documentation um and focus on performance.

[00:13:24]>> Okay. So documentation is probably the buzz word for today's webinar, right?

[00:13:29]Um, I mean that's a theme that's going to keep coming up in employment matters in general. So, let's now talk about another area where documentation matters just as much. Uh, pay, right? Wage and hour lawsuits seem to be increasing every year. What are some of the most common overtime and payroll compliance mistakes employers make today?

[00:13:52]>> Yeah, that's a great question and I agree. Um, you know, I've seen quite an uptick in wage an hour or they're commonly known as wage theft claims. Um, again, I think it comes down to what we spoke about earlier where there's really, you know, business owners are very busy. So, they may not always have a way to track what the hours the employee worked. In other words, what are the days? When did they start? When did they stop? And ensuring that employees are not working more than um 40 hours a week or if they are making sure they're paid properly. Um so I think that's the number one thing. Um again, I think you know as as business owners, as startups, entrepreneurs, etc., we're very focused on growing the business. You often find like, oh, I'll just get to it later. just tell me how many hours you worked or I'll just pay you a certain number. And employees are also working hard. They're working very hard and they're sacrificing time from their family, from their friends, from their social life to come and try to accelerate support and help grow our businesses. So, we want to be sure that if they are working extra hours, whether that's um a sales call, a phone call, you know, driving from one site to another, unloading, loading, finishing an email. If there any extra hours, we're capturing those hours and we're paying the employees for those hours. If we don't want to pay overtime, then we need to have clear guidance that tells the employees, look, you cannot work overtime. um you're only allowed to work eight hours a day, 40 hours a week, etc. We need a written policy. Um if not, then we need to be open to paying the employees for whatever hours they've worked and that may mean overtime. So definitely um the laws are very strict um in Maryland and DC particularly because we want to make sure we're paying our employees correctly. I I don't think any of us um as business owners want to um we don't want that sense that you know someone has worked for us and we haven't paid them. I mean that's not a good feeling. So in order to pay them correctly, we need to have a way to capture all of the hours and make sure that they understand what we're paying them reflects the hours they actually worked.

[00:16:19]>> And you mentioned DC and Maryland laws.

[00:16:21]So, you know, for growing companies, you start in one location and then next thing you know is you're successful and the company keeps growing. So, now you have employees working in multiple states. What should business owners should be mindful of when they have employees from different states?

[00:16:40]>> Yeah, that's a great question. Um, frequently it does happen where you maybe even have a remote employee in another state. Well, frequently states have different laws con cons concerning um what we would call wage theft. There is a federal law um the fair labor standards act, but states frequently have their own as well. Um and some states allow three times the amount of um wages claimed or some states may have four times. So it's important to have good guidance whether that's through um you know an HR professional or whether that's with an attorney and to ensure that you you know the business owner knows what are the laws for each state.

[00:17:25]So, for example, if a business owner, you know, is based in Washington DC, but they have remote staff in California, well, California may have different major laws, and it's not uncommon for an employee to want to stay extra or work later, like I said earlier, you know, to finish the email out or to just, you know, come back from the, you know, the trip or the dropping off, whatever it is. and we want to make sure those employees are paid and the time is act accurately captured. So I think um it you know in that that case we need to have guidance from either an HR professional or an attorney um who says this is what the wage and hour laws are for each state because it may vary.

[00:18:10]>> Right. Right. and Abas. So, you worked at Department of Labor for many years.

[00:18:16]Um, from a a regulatory standpoint, what triggers a wage and hour investigation in your experience?

[00:18:24]>> It's a great question. Um, so what I've seen is even from my own experience, uh, whether at the Department of Labor or as an attorney in private practice, sometimes it could be what we spoke about the mclassification.

[00:18:38]Um sometimes the state may audit a um organization, a company uh and and they may want to look and see. Well, look, for example, you have 100 um 100 folks and they're all 1099 contractors. Let's take a look and see what are they doing, how is that related to your business.

[00:18:59]And the state may disagree. And I I've seen that happen happen with a client of mine where you know the state didn't agree in some cases and the client had to go back and pay taxes on the you know alleged mclassification.

[00:19:15]So um it it it could be triggered randomly. Um it could also be triggered by an employee or contractor who feels they were mclassified and they're owed um wages. owed additional wages for overtime etc. Uh so it could be triggered by you know the regulatory agency, the state or uh federal department of labor. They could do an audit and ask to explain like how you how are you classifying these employees or it could be from the employee who goes to an attorney or who goes to one of those agencies and says listen I was only paid for 40 hours as a 1099 but I actually was an employee and I worked 60 hours. I owe additional money and I was mclassified.

[00:20:03]So, it could be um either way, but again, the key comes back to kind of the buzzword documentation where the employer hopefully has clear records and explanation because I think at least as an employer, if we could show we had a good faith reason to make the classification and we had proper records, that does a lot to show that we were trying to at least, you know, we were doing our due diligence. We were trying our best to comply with the law as we understood it.

[00:20:38]>> Yeah. Thank you. And um just as a reminder, these claims can quickly snowball into class action or collective actions, especially if you have sizable um employees. Uh so let's shift to another area employers regularly get wrong. Let's talk about accommodations and leave requests.

[00:20:58]What are employers getting wrong when it comes to handling ADA accommodations and FMLA leave?

[00:21:07]>> Yeah. Um well, a lot of employers um like there maybe they're busy or they don't understand uh you know as business owners, entrepreneurs, they may feel well I got through it. Why can't the employee and we all need to be mindful that you know outside of work um our employees uh have issues right everyone has a social life a personal life family social etc etc and maybe they're going through things it could be a medical uh physical it could be psychological it could be a loved one it could be a variety of things so as business owners we need to be very mindful of that and be careful and I I think we all want to be we want to run a business but we also need to be supportive of our employees.

[00:21:55]So if an employee says listen my loved one my spouse etc is having a difficult time I need to be available for them take them to the medical appointments take them to the um uh hospital or whatever it is um or I need time for my own you know mental health etc. We need to be respectful and supportive of that.

[00:22:18]So the standard the federal standard is not that high and generally an employee asking for that time is sufficient. Um there are some forms online at the department of work website which could be downloaded. Um, generally there just a medical note with the forms, but the bottom line is we want to be supportive.

[00:22:40]And the key for the accommodation is is we can reasonably accommodate. Like if it's a desk job and the person, for example, we're scene where it's a a desk job, office type job, and the person needs to sit for extended time. Well, I mean, it's probably not incompatible.

[00:22:59]Um, again, not legal advice, just high level discussion. Now a warehouse to have if someone needs to be sedentary maybe we can look at that. But if the medical accommodation is really something which the employer can reasonably do without essentially impacting the mission of their business, then my advice would be the employer should give it give it a trial. Um because otherwise they may be setting themselves up for a lawsuit uh for ADA violation. Um so again it is kind of fact specific case by case but rather than saying I don't have time with this I'm not going to deal with it my advice to the business owners who would be do reach out to an attorney or reach out to uh human resource professional and you try to see what you can do to accommodate the employee even if you ultimately get to the point where you know you say we just can't do it if you've gone through a good um interactive process that you come to the conclusion after that um that we can't do it. That puts you in a much better place than just summarily saying I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to try.

[00:24:13]>> Yeah. And so what about employers who think they're too small for these laws to apply? Is that a safe assumption?

[00:24:23]Well, again, it is a state-by-state situation, but um my advice would be is to to take the high road, engage in the interactive process. Um you know, make a good safe effort and try to um engage with the employee, try to make an accommodation rather than focusing on well, I'm too small, you don't need to worry about it. Well, I'm too busy. So, in this case, the size of the employer may matter. um depending on the type of claim that the employee could bring. Um but again, we're not going to get into all the legal specifics. But overall, I would just say um as you know, an employment law business attorney, and I think you could appreciate it, too. Um you know, it's better to make a good faith effort and try to accommodate the employee as much as possible. Um engage in the interactive process and see what you can do. If it's not possible, I think that's fine. But I would say go through the process as much as you can.

[00:25:24]And then if it doesn't work out, at least you can say, "Well, I've tried."

[00:25:30]>> Yeah. And it sounds like a lot of these issues that we've been discussing comes down to whether the company has the right systems in place.

[00:25:41]>> Absolutely. Absolutely. We spoke about having a good payroll system where the uh employer can document when did the employee start work, when did they stop work, what are the days of the week, having a certification that the insurance certifies that these hours that I'm submitting for pay are correct and accurate uh to the best of my ability. We also talked about having either a HR or an attorney consultant on board to make sure there's an employee manual. Um we talked about a solid onboarding process. We talked about a solid termination process, disciplinary process based on conduct um based on performance. So yes, we definitely have talked about um having a solid system in place because um and you you're going to be able to relate to this too um as a leader that you know we're all so busy business um we may not always have time to do these administrative functions but it doesn't mean they're not important.

[00:26:44]It just means that we need to find someone who's competent where we can delegate them and make sure they're being done collectively.

[00:26:53]>> Yes. And now we're going to transition to a different topic. So harassment and retaliation claims can be extremely costly and extremely. So what are some proactive steps that businesses should take to reduce the risk of these types of claims?

[00:27:12]Yeah, I would say the number one thing I I I think I see is um frequently employees may want to file some type of claim whether it's an EO claim or whatever it is. Um but at that point I think employers need to be very careful and um not take any sort of adverse action and again consult with your attorney. This is not legal advice, but um any sort of perceived adverse conduct after an employee files some type of claim, whether it's an EEO or ADA claim, can be perceived as retaliation, especially if they're close in proximity. So, in other words, you know, hypothetically, an employee files some type of claim and the employer says, you know, I'm going to get rid of this employee or I want to actually reduce this employees um hours, it could be perceived as um retaliation if it's close in proximity to when the employee made the employer aware of the you know perceived violation. Um, so I would say that is something that I see frequently when employers say, you know, I just want to get rid of this employee or what if I just tell them they're dumb, I want to cut their hours. Um, after the employer knows the employee may bring some type of plan. I think that is a very uh common area. It's um something where I would say highly highly recommend talking to an attorney or talking to a um seasoned HR professional. Um, again, not legal advice, but it is something that we all need to be mindful of.

[00:28:57]>> Yes. And you mentioned an um EO claim.

[00:29:01]So, we may have listeners who are not familiar with it, maybe because they didn't have to deal with this. So, could you briefly tell us what what an EO claim might be?

[00:29:10]>> Sure. An EO claim is um it's a claim generally based on a adverse act uh for something which was protected in the law. For example, um someone might I I didn't get a promotion and I believe I didn't get the promotion because I'm a woman or so gender is a protected area um or because I'm a person of color or because of my faith um or because of my disability. So, generally speaking, at a high level, um mostly your federal and state law says, you know, you can um deny promotions or whatnot if it's based on performance, but you can't factor in um gender or race or uh uh uh sexual orientation uh those types of things in those decisions. So, if someone feels that I didn't get the promotion or I was terminated for one of the legally protected reasons, it could raise what's called an equal opportunity um claim, EEOC, equal opportunity um uh claim.

[00:30:17]Many states like Maryland or DC um they have sister agencies where the those types of claims could be filed federal or state. So employee makes an allegation about that um then they can file a claim and depending on the amount of facts and um the process the uh administrative agency can investigate it could also result in a legal claim too.

[00:30:48]And if a business receives an EOCC claim or charge or demand um what should the business do immediately and what should they avoid doing?

[00:31:01]>> Definitely um talk to an attorney. Uh talk to a seasoned attorney who's familiar with these types of claims. Um it's not something to take lightly. Many times business owners think, "Oh, this is there's no merit to this. I'm just going to ignore it. Big mistake."

[00:31:18]um talk to someone whether or not you think it's serious. Um and then the other thing is do not delete anything.

[00:31:26]Any of the communications, any of the emails, any and now everybody has it on their phone, do not delete it. Um all of that information mostly what I found is employees will keep it. So it's important to also the owner has it, business owner has it, so they can share it with an attorney. But my advice would be contact an attorney.

[00:31:47]Do not talk to the employee and do not delete any information.

[00:31:53]>> And also do not retaliate against the employee.

[00:31:58]>> Absolutely. Absolutely. 100%.

[00:32:01]>> What is the single most damaging thing you've seen a business owner do in the first uh 48 hours after getting a EOC charge?

[00:32:13]I think sometimes they might, you know, actually directly contact the employee and say, "I can't believe you did that.

[00:32:20]You know, we had such a great relationship. I did so much for you. You know, I gave you clothes. I gave you food. I invited you to my house." And these are things I've actually heard. Um I would say that's the most damaging thing. Um a lot of times those, you know, as as you know, as an attorney, you know, some things are considered admissions. um when the employee when the employer says, you know, I didn't mean for what I seem to be taken that way, you know, I'm not a racist, you know, I'm not sexist, etc., etc. Those are all considered admissions. Again, not not legal advice, high level. Um be very careful about that. Um now, like again, as you know, everything's on your phone. People will record conversations.

[00:33:07]In some states, they're admissible and others they're not. But still, it's embarrassing and it makes it much more complicated. Um, so I would say do not contact the employee.

[00:33:21]And um, I guess this kind of brings us to our final question, which I think would ties everything together.

[00:33:29]What is the single most important thing business owners can do today to bulletproof their business from employment law problems?

[00:33:39]That's a great question. Um, I would say have a seasoned professional on board, whether it's an attorney um or a HR professional. And I my my advice would definitely be be proactive. Everyone wants to save money and wait till something happens, but that actually can end up costing more money. I'm frequently contacted by businesses um who mclassify employees or are served with a wage theft claim um or have an EEO claim. And I find um often that it could have been avoided had they talked to an attorney ahead of time um who would have been able to help them correctly classify the employee um or who would have been able to help them avoid the EEO claim or maybe even settle it for a much lower cost. But um a lot of us are unfortunately a bit shortsighted and we think well I'm not going to spend money now. I'm not faced with any claim. And then later on things snowball. What could have been a small settlement or what could have been an easy classification issue end up being a large mclassification issue for tens of thousands of dollars plus legal fees or um an EO claim which won't go away. A lot of those things could have been avoided by taking a proactive approach.

[00:35:08]Um just like we invest in our business to grow. I think having an attorney or an HR professional on board is a worthwhile investment.

[00:35:18]>> Yeah, I mean that's excellent advice and it's important to have this relationship with an employment lawyer before you actually need one. So we always uh talk about preventive uh health or uh preventive legal uh things actions we can take and um for businesses the most important one would be to have an employment lawyer.

[00:35:40]build that relationship, someone you can trust and consult before the problem gets messy and invest in early training and of course documentation.

[00:35:50]I mean uh as we mentioned earlier today, documentation is probably going to come into play for every aspect of any kind of employment dispute.

[00:36:00]And um so before we open it up for questions from the listeners, one last question for you. If you could put one thing on every business owner's calendar this quarter or this year, what would it be?

[00:36:15]>> Yeah, I would say talk to an employment lawyer um and make sure that whatever you're doing now is in compliance with the laws um of your jurisdiction.

[00:36:27]Take that proactive approach like we all, you know, for example, want to go to the gym so we can avoid getting sick later. want to eat right so we can avoid, you know, getting sick um or missing time from work, missing quality time with our family and friends. It's the same thing for our business. We need um an employment lawyer on board who can make sure we're taking the proactive steps to avoid a cat um lawsuit or a nasty demand letter.

[00:36:57]>> Yes. Um I mean that's uh again excellent advice. So, let me uh take a few minutes here to see if there's any questions from the chat.

[00:37:08]And if you have something that you'd like to um add, please feel free. Okay, let's see.

[00:37:17]Here's one. What is the one document every employer should be able to produce on 24 hours notice?

[00:37:26]>> That's a good question. I would say um a time sheet of the employee um if if you're an employer and you have an employee, you should be able to produce a record of what that employees hours.

[00:37:38]Um what did they work? For example, on Monday they worked 8 hours or on Monday they started at 8 a.m. They stopped at 4:30 p.m. They took 30 minutes for lunch. I would say um the number one thing employer should be able to produce in 24 hours is an a time sheet of the employee.

[00:38:02]>> Let me see if there's any other questions.

[00:38:06]Let's see.

[00:38:09]Um I think that's all we have for today.

[00:38:12]I mean, you did a great presentation covering a lot of the most important topics that business owners might face.

[00:38:20]So, AAS, um, I want to thank you. This was incredibly valuable. And the themes that we keep hearing today are clear.

[00:38:28]Uh, classify your workers correctly.

[00:38:31]Document everything. Keep records of everything, including, uh, time records and time sheets of your employees. and um build that relationship with the employment council before before you really need one, not afterwards. So um if anything we discussed today raise a question about your own business, feel free to reach out. I'm going to we're going to drop um Aposa's uh website link here in the chat. So you can contact them at Saddak Law Group and then if you have any um business or commercial dispute matters, you can also reach out uh to our firm.

[00:39:08]APA serves clients in DC and Maryland.

[00:39:13]We serve clients in multiple states including uh DC, Virginia and Maryland.

[00:39:17]And you can always reach out to our team. Uh I want to thank Apas again for his time. If you have any last words before we close off uh I'll leave it to you.

[00:39:28]Okay. Well, thank you for having me.

[00:39:30]It's been a pleasure to be here and be a part of the um Capital Law Partners team. Um and yeah, I wouldn't um I can't I don't think I can understate the importance of having counsel, quality counsel um either HR professional or a employment lawyer and take that proactive approach. Don't wait because I I see it all the time where people wait and they come last minute when they're already served with the complaint or they have the nasty demand letter and they're scrambling to figure out what to do and unfortunately um they haven't taken the steps required before that um you know to protect their business which we all work so hard to uh build and if the steps aren't are taking it's very hard to defend a claim and the we end up just a conversation about settlement rather than defending the merits of the claim. So take some time out talk to a professional u we do we do offer um consultations at SA group and um happy to talk to anyone who's listening today and anyone um from your team as well.

[00:40:45]Thank you.

[00:40:47]>> And um please subscribe to the channel so you don't miss the next webinar. So thanks again uh everyone. Don't forget to take care of your business and your business will take care of you. Hope to see you next time.