June

With the ever-growing driver shortage looming, many motor carriers are lowering their hiring standards to fill their empty trucks. No company wants to turn down a job because they don 't have drivers to service the account. But while companies to some extent are at the mercy of supply and demand, carriers have to keep the potential for negligent hiring lawsuits top of mind. Negligent hiring is based on the principle that companies have a responsibility to protect their clients and the public from injury at the hands of their employees. Companies can be held liable for property damages, deaths and physical injuries, and other errors caused by their employees within the scope of their employment. If you don 't establish driver hiring standards, you will have a hard time defending your recruiting processes in court if they were ever challenged in a negligent hiring suit. Negligence can be alleged in all aspects of managing your employees: in hiring, retention, and when changing job responsibilities. It is important that you: Do your homework before hiring drivers, Put driver hiring policies in writing, Train drivers for success, Keep your ear to the ground, and Re-evaluate if you change the job duties.

"Louisville has joined the ranks of cities to enact an ordinance prohibiting employers from asking job applicants about their criminal backgrounds. The bill applies only to the city and its private vendors. According to Tom Birchfield, a managing partner at Louisville-based Fisher and Phillips LLP law firm said, ""I don 't think it is that big of a deal because it says you can 't have a box on the application."" Ban the Box supporters say the measure simply prevents businesses from summarily dismissing job applicants who admit they 've been convicted of a crime. In most cases the city or its vendors now can 't ask about conviction history until after they have determined that applicants otherwise are qualified for positions."

"Brazil will drop a controversial provision that would have forced global Internet companies to store data on Brazilian users inside the country to shield them from U.S. spying. The rule was added last year to proposed Internet governance legislation after revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency had spied on the digital communications of Brazilians, including those of their President Dilma Rousseff and the country's biggest company Petroleo Brasileiro SA. Instead, the legislation will say that companies such as Google Inc and Facebook Inc are subject to Brazilian laws in cases involving information on Brazilians even if the data is stored abroad, said congressional relations minister Ideli Salvatti. She said the bill, which is opposed by Rousseff allies in the lower chamber of Congress, has enough support to be put to the vote. Salvatti said the government will not negotiate a key provision in the bill on net neutrality, which has faced strong opposition from telecom companies in Brazil because it would bar them from introducing differential pricing according to Internet usage and speeds. The legislation dubbed Brazil's ""Internet Constitution"" protects freedom of expression, safeguards privacy and sets limits to the gathering and use of metadata on Internet users."