Joseph T. Bartulis is a Labor and Employment attorney and Chair of the firm’s Labor and Employment Law Practice Group. He is also a senior member of the Business and Corporate Law Practice Group, and advises employers on Education and Higher Education law matters as well. He advises private and public sector employers in numerous industries on all aspects of workplace law. Mr. Bartulis believes that prevention of employment law violations is the best practice. To that end, Mr. Bartulis proactively advises clients on often-complicated human resources and employment law issues where he provides clients with pragmatic suggestions on how to best avoid costly mistakes and pitfalls and resolve those issues if and when they occur.

Mr. Bartulis has a full-service labor and employment law practice where he counsels employers on all aspects of the employment life cycle. This includes advising employers on the laws regarding the selection, hiring, and onboarding of new employees — including the content of offer letters, employment eligibility, drafting of employment contracts, classifying employees as exempt salaried versus hourly paid, and drafting restrictive covenant agreements (non-disclosure, non-solicitation, and non-competition.) Regarding current employees, Mr. Bartulis counsels employers on documenting employee performance, drafts employer policies, and drafts employee handbooks. He also advises employers on disciplining and discharging employees and documenting those actions, personnel file content, and employer compliance with the numerous statutory provisions applicable to employees — such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave Act (MAPFML), among others. Mr. Bartulis also advises employers on determining what is compensable time worked by hourly paid employees, how to properly determine overtime rates for employees whose hourly payrate fluctuates, and how to and when to pay employees without running afoul of wage and hour laws.

Regarding employees who leave an employer’s employ, Mr. Bartulis advises employers on calculating an employee’s final pay, what it consists of, and how and when it must be paid to avoid costly treble damages penalties. Mr. Bartulis also assists employers by drafting severance agreements and releases to be presented to departing employees, when applicable.

Mr. Bartulis routinely defends discrimination, harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination claims brought by employees/former employees at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), and the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC). Mr. Bartulis also frequently assists employers defending allegations of violating the Massachusetts Wage Act brought before the Fair Labor Division at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office or the US Department of Labor for violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

In the area of labor law, Mr. Bartulis has experience advising employers on union avoidance and has assisted employers in staving of unionization of their workforces. On behalf of his unionized employer clients, Mr. Bartulis has extensive experience handling all types of labor relations matters – from negotiating and mediating collective bargaining agreements, to handling grievance and interest arbitrations, to defending unfair labor practice charges.

Mr. Bartulis is a frequent speaker, nationally, regionally, and locally for many trade organizations and human resource professionals where he speaks and trains employers on all aspects of labor and employment law and the latest developments. Additionally, he has published numerous articles on topics related to employment and labor law.