As many of you may recall, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (CRA) implemented employment discrimination laws in the United States that have sought to protect virtually every individual from discrimination in the hiring and employment process.

As we enter the new year, we often look forward to business growth potential and resolutions to improve our professional and personal lives. Perhaps this year, more than any other in recent memory, we anticipate a great amount of change that may improve our health, economy and social interactions. Part of this anticipation can include examining present legal trends that may affect your forge in 2021.

One of the major news stories across the United States in the past six months concerns the proliferation of civil unrest and resultant damage to businesses and public property. An unbiased source estimates a total property damage in the U.S. to be somewhere between $1-2 billion.

With the 2020 general election approaching, a review of employees’ rights and employers’ obligations to employees is in order.

To review, whistleblowers are employees who expose fraud, waste or other misconduct occurring within their company. Retaliation against whistleblowers is nothing new, but legislative policies to protect whistleblowers from being fired, harassed or otherwise abused in the workplace are comparatively new.

The theft of intellectual property (IP) from North American businesses is often in the news.

As was reported in this column in October 2019, the National Safety Council reports that Americans became more likely to die from an accidental opioid overdose than from a motor vehicle crash at some point during the past three years.

The National Safety Council reports that at some point during the past three years Americans became more likely to die from an accidental opioid overdose than from a motor vehicle crash.

The U.S. Labor Department reports a national unemployment rate of 3.6% for the latest available statistics (May 2019).

Finished forgings cannot reach their intended markets without the labor of humans.