Biography

The goal of my practice is to provide superior, proactive advice to my clients, reducing the threat of potential claims by employees or ex-employees. I have spent many years attaining the expertise to help me fulfill this goal. Right out of law school, I joined a reputable insurance defense firm defending companies in personal injury matters. It was there that I gained valuable trial experience. However, I wanted to focus more on my personal goal of practicing "preventive" law. That is what attracted me to the area of labor and employment law: the opportunity to counsel clients and provide the counseling and training to keep them out of trouble.

For the past 15 years, I have been providing just that type of advice to clients of all sizes. Since 1996, I have been Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in the area of labor and employment law and enjoy serving as a speaker before various trade organizations on all aspects of employment law. Nevertheless, when creative problem solving will not satisfy a litigious employee, my trial experience includes representing companies in federal and state courts nationwide as well as before various state and federal agencies such as the EEOC, OSHA, the Department of Labor, and Immigration Customs and Enforcement.

Representative Matters

• Successfully defended a Fortune 500 company in a class action case brought by the EEOC. The case involved allegations that the company was discriminating against African Americans in the hiring process.
• Successfully defended a Fortune 500 company in a wrongful termination case alleging discrimination for filing a workers' compensation claim.
• Numerous summary judgments obtained in defending employers throughout the country in various matters alleging discrimination, harassment and retaliation.

Education

• JD, Texas Tech University School of Law
• BBA, Texas State University

Affiliations

• Houston Bar Association (Habitat for Humanity Committee)
• Texas Bar Association (Labor and Employment and Litigation Sections member)
• Independent Insurance Agents of Houston Board of Directors
• Greater Houston Partnership
• United States District Court for the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of Texas
• United States District Court for the District of Colorado
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas
• Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
• United States Supreme Court

Community

• Devereux Texas Treatment Network – Texas Advisory Board Vice Chair
• Rotary Club of Houston – Rotary House Committee

Representative Matters

Trey has made it his professional mission to assist clients in maximizing employee relations and minimizing employee claims. This means being attentive to a client's needs and providing the type of advice that will fit within the framework of an individual client's own philosophy. In order to achieve his professional mission, Trey seeks to provide proactive, rather than reactive, advice to help reduce potential employee claims or, at the very least, put the company in the most defensible position possible. He has assisted clients with the following types of matters:

• Recruitment & Hiring Issues: With the EEOC's recent focus on filing systemic (class action) cases in the area of recruitment and hiring, it is imperative that companies of all sizes have a legal, yet workable system of recruiting and hiring employees.
• Employment Verification Process: Immigration issues are a political hot-button and Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids are on the rise. It is critical that companies ensure that their I-9's are being completed accurately and maintained in accordance with IRCA regulations.
• Wage & Hour Issues: A favorite of plaintiff attorneys across the country are FLSA collective (class action) cases claiming that employees are misclassified and not being paid overtime, are not being paid for rest and meal periods, or are simply not being paid for overtime worked.
• Employment Contracts: Vast experience in drafting employment contracts and non-competition agreements as well as enforcing those agreements.
• Independent Contractor Issues: All too frequently, companies try to classify workers as independent contractors, rather than employees. If misclassified, this can create a potential windfall for litigation-minded workers.]
• Promotion, Discipline & Termination Issues: Of vital importance is to make certain that promotions, discipline and, especially terminations are carefully reviewed to make certain that these decisions are being made in a fair, consistent and legal manner, with all necessary and proper documentation being generated and maintained.
• Reductions in Workforce: Given the cost constraints that companies are facing in today's economy, reductions in force are sometimes the only solution to avoiding bankruptcy. However, lay-offs can sometimes end up costing a company more than it anticipated saving if it is not planned properly. Our attorneys are adept at providing guidance for making sure that such staff reductions have the intended effect of saving the company money.
• Employee Injury/Sickness Issues: When an employee is injured on the job, away from work, or becomes sick, tricky issues pertaining to workers' compensation, FMLA and the ADA always arise. Timely counseling on the treatment of these employees is essential.
• Personnel Policies: Employee handbooks can be used as an effective shield against specious employee claims, or a sword against the company if not up to date. Our attorneys are adept at creating and reviewing handbooks and policies to help ensure compliance with current employment laws.
• OFCCP Issues: If a company is a government contractor, it must make certain it conforms with the requirements of Executive Order 11246.
• Union Avoidance: If, as many expect, the Employee Free Choice Act becomes law, it is expected that the country's unionized labor force will rise from 7% to over 25% within the next few years. It is important that a company's management team know the signs to look for and how to avoid a union organizing campaign without being cited with unfair labor practices from the NLRB.
• Management Training: Perhaps the best way to avoid employment issues altogether is to make sure that managers and supervisors are adequately trained on basic employment law issues so that they can be identified and dealt with properly.

Press Releases

August 02, 2010

Other News

Wood Joins BoyarMiller
Chron.com
Heights/Neartown News Briefs

On August 27, 2010, Chron.com announced in their online Heights/Neartown News that "BoyarMiller, a Houston boutique business and litigation law firm, announced that Joseph "Trey" L. Wood, III has joined the firm as Of Counsel. He brings more than 20 years of trial experience with specialized expertise counseling clients on employer-employee relationships.

Wood, a creative problem solver, works with companies to solve labor relations and employee issues, reducing the threat of potential claims by employees and ex-employees."

Click her for link to Chron.com.

Alerts

Nursing Mothers: Give them a Break!
by Joseph "Trey" L. Wood, III
August 20, 2010

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was one of the laws that was enacted as part of President Obama's healthcare reform initiative. Contained within the thousands and thousands of pages of the law's text is a provision that amends the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which governs wages and hours work, to provide a break time requirement for nursing mothers. This law provides that employers must provide reasonable break time for an employee to express milk for her nursing child for one year after the child's birth each time such employee has the need to express the milk. Employers with fewer than 50 employees are not subject to the law if compliance would impose an undue hardship. However, all employees who work for the employer must be counted — not just those at a particular work site. Also, employees who are exempt under the FLSA are excluded from the break time obligation.

Recently, the Department of Labor has attempted to provide guidance to employers on complying with the Act. Contained within one of the DOL's informal "Fact Sheets" it indicates that the law became effective when the PPACA was signed into law on March 23. While the DOL did not specify any minimum number, frequency or duration for the breaks, it does indicate that the employer must provide a place other than a bathroom as a location for the break. The location need not be reserved exclusively for a nursing employee's use and it may be a location that is temporarily created or converted for this purpose. The location must be:

• Functional as a space for expressing breast milk;
• Shielded from view; and,
• Free from any intrusion by co-workers or the public.

Employers are not required to treat these breaks as compensable time, or hours worked. However, if the employer allows paid breaks, it must compensate a nursing employee in the same way it does other employees if she uses it for the purpose of expressing breast milk. Also, the time for the break must be paid if the employee is not completely relieved from duty during the break. So, for example, if the nursing employee is on a business telephone call while expressing breast milk, that time is compensable.

While this new law is untested, and the guidance provided by the DOL is informal, the prudent course of action is for all employers covered by the act to follow these pronouncements pending further developments of the law.