Recently in Other Employment Law Issues Category

A background check can make the difference between a candidate snagging the job or getting the boot. But it's important for employers to tread carefully when looking into a candidate's criminal history.

As it turns out, prospective employers can't always use whatever they find in the hiring process.

Illinois, like many other states, limits an employer's ability to look into a job applicant's criminal history.

The interview went well and you seemingly locked down the job that you want. Now it's time for you to negotiate your job contract.

For certain positions (typically, high-level and executive positions), the employer will enter into an employment agreement with you.

The job contract can cover pretty much everything that touches upon your employment. Because these contracts are binding and set forth your rights, you will want to be careful before signing them. In addition, you should know that you may be able to negotiate certain provisions. Here's a look at five important terms you may want to negotiate:

All employment contracts are not created equal. And if you are not careful about what you put in your boilerplate employment contracts, you may find yourself over-promising, violating the law, and potentially even being sued.

While it may be a good idea to start with a template to get certain standard provisions correct, it is important that you review each individual contract and make it specific for each position.

Some things you should keep in mind when reviewing your employment contracts can include:

More and more new hires are asked to sign an employment contract when they join a company.

Employment agreements can be written contracts, or they can be verbal promises or provisions made in an employee handbook or company policy. Generally, you will want your contract in written form.

Employment contracts are enforceable, and you will want to make sure that everything promised to you at your interview is contained in the contract. In addition, you will want to make sure that there are no surprises.

When reviewing your contract, keep the following three questions in mind:

One of the easiest ways to get in legal trouble as an employer is by not meeting Illinois' employer posting requirements.

The posting requirements are pretty simple: Make sure that your employees can see these enumerated state and federal notices. But for whatever reason -- be it laziness, ignorance, or oversight -- many employers fail to meet these requirements.

To make things easy for you, here are a list of Illinois and federal posting requirements, as provided by the Illinois Department of Labor.

Shardonnae Pruitt was removing salad plates from a customer’s table when she discovered that one of the patrons may have not paid for his salad. Caring greatly about her employer’s bottom line, she confronted the patron about the robbed roughage. Unfortunately, she cared a bit too much and expressed her outrage at someone stealing from her boss by throwing a napkin dispenser at the alleged thief.

And then she stabbed his girlfriend three times at their dinner table, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Now, LaNasia Randle has filed a lawsuit against CEC Entertainment, the parent company of the restaurant, claiming negligence because the restaurant’s security stood by idly and watched as their coworker sliced and diced the patron.

What does this knife-wielding waitress have to do with you, the local small business owner?

As promised, we've returned with the rest of 2012's most popular employment law stories.

The Top 5 stories can be found here. The next five are a mixed bag, dealing with everything from being laid off to McSexual harassment.

The year 2012 was in interesting one for employment law. We saw more stories about the role of social media in the workplace, an increase in EEOC litigation, state-funded pension disputes, and the upholding of Obamacare.

Of course, these were the topics that most interested us law geeks. For readers like yourselves, here are the 10 most interesting employment law stories of 2012, as determined by Internet traffic:

Every writer has been there. They compose something brilliant. In their mind it is only rivaled by the greatest works of William Faulkner himself. Then the editor gets his hands on it. The end result is either full deletion or a rewritten piece that sounds nothing like the original. Your version of "The Sound and the Fury" becomes a mere whimper of indignation.

The fact is, if you write for a reputable newspaper or blog, an editor will change your articles. The sooner one becomes accustomed to the system, the easier their job becomes.

Anyone remember the old adage, "give a mouse a cookie and he'll want some milk." Okay, so it's less of an adage than a children's book, but it's wise nonetheless.

This past summer, Chicago finally caught up to most other major metropolitan areas and allowed food trucks to prepare food ... in the trucks. Previously, food trucks could only serve prepackaged food that was prepared elsewhere. The Windy City's epicurious folk rejoiced while entrepreneurial types began plans to revolutionize the pallets of the populace.