The three-day forum touched on developments such as the expanding definition of a "caregiver" under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and reinforced best practices like collecting evidence as soon as a potential claims-event occurs.
Speaking on the caregiver issue, [image-nocss] David Bridgers, vice president and general counsel for Thorntons Inc., Louisville, Ky., said the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has recently expanded the definition of who a caregiver is, allowing for someone who may not be a parent or legal guardian to qualify for FMLA leave.
"Before you deny [employees], get to counsel and get the facts," Bridgers told the group of 24 retailers and four suppliers.
Growing areas of concern for the industry, especially as it expands its private-label endeavors, are product liability and intellectual-property rights, said Steve Burkhart, vice president and general counsel for BIC Corp., Milford, Conn.
As retailers in general grow in size and scale, this segment of businesses increasingly becomes a target for lawsuitsand criminal liability. "There's something about taking civil and criminal liabilities [and blurring the lines] that makes me nervous," he said, noting how employees of a particular U.S. distributor are currently serving federal time for a product-related offense.
He spoke of instances where retailers can be sued for products they import or foodservice items that make people ill. Retailers need to know where items and ingredients come from in order to track and assess liability. Even if retailers are ultimately not responsible, plaintiffs will go after local businesses before trying to identify and sue overseas companies.
"Not all these cases are about product liability either," he said, noting a case where a retailer developed a new product, only to be sued for patent infringement by San Francisco-based Williams-Sonoma Inc. "With private label, you may be taking someone else's ideathat's a common thing. It's about intellectual-property rights, patents and trademarks."
Retailer Mary Anne Macica, risk manager for Stewart's Shops Corp., Saratoga Springs, N.Y., advised that retailers be proactive when handling risk-and-liability issues. "We tell our managers, if you think you need to write up [an incident], then the answer is 'yes'," she said. "Take the pictures, take the camera off the wall and get the video. My cell number and my extension are on the report form."
If a retailer waits until a possible lawsuit lands on his or her table, valuable evidence may be lost, added Claudia Ryan, partner with Towne, Ryan and Partners, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., who works with Macica.
Macica emphasized the importance of proper training, working in service of the employees at the store and providing the necessary tools. "You can't say [to employees], 'Do this,' without giving them the tools," she said. "Why should another floor sign come out of their budget? Or cold patch if there's a pothole in the parking lot?"
The forum, held July 12-14 in downtown Indianapolis, also covered issues of contractual risk, the growing influence of new technologies on litigation and business-interruption insurance.[Pictured: Claudia Ryan (seated) and Mary Anne Macica from Stewart's Shops advise retailers to be proactive in dealing with potential lawsuits; previous page, David Bridgers of Thorntons Inc. covers issues of ranging from contracts to human resources.]
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