As many of you are wrapping up open enrollment or doing year-end performance appraisals, we thought it might be a good time to recap some of this year’s legal highlights. Think of this as your 2019 “to do” list. You can mark many things off your list or use this to add reminders to your 2020 list.

Workers’ Compensation Retaliation
Changes to this law in May 2019 remind us to update our policies and train our supervisors and employees. Work related injuries and illnesses must be reported. Employees who exercise their rights protected by law cannot suffer retaliation.

Medical Marijuana
If you desired, did you update your signs to prohibit the smoking or vaping of marijuana, including medical marijuana? Did you update your policy on medical marijuana in light of the changes that took effect August 2019? If you drug test your employees, did you update your policy to reflect the changes to the medical marijuana laws that took effect August 2019? (You may want to update your job descriptions as well for safety-sensitive positions.)

Gun Laws
Oklahoma has a variety of protections for gun owners, but employers and business owners also have rights. Employers need to ensure their policies (and postings) are in compliance with Oklahoma law, some of which changed November 2019.

Minimum Salary Threshold for Exempt Employees
The Department of Labor is implementing new regulations going into effect January 1, 2020, which will increase the minimum salary threshold for many of the “white collar” employees currently classified as exempt. It is being raised from $23,660 annually to $35,569 annually. To ensure your employees are properly classified (under this and each facet of the exemption analysis), you will want to put this on your list. Misclassifying an employee as exempt can be costly.

Of course, every year is a good time to update your handbook or job descriptions or to train your supervisors, but the above reflects some key changes in 2019 that may require your specific attention.

Until 2020…

By Kristen L. Brightmire and Rebecca D. Bullard
kbrightmire@dsda.com and rbullard@dsda.com