In This Issue:

- Notes from the Chair & Executive Editor

- How do you maintain at-will employment if you can't tell anyone?

- Update on Class Actions Following Dukes v. Wal-Mart

- Important Employer-Related Provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Scheduled to Begin in 2013

- Latest West Virginia Supreme Court Case Awakens Some Sleeping Giants

- Excerpt from Notes from the Chair & Executive Editor:

The last quarter of 2012 brought with it the quadrennial election results. On the employment front, the re-election of President Barack Obama means that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the "Affordable Care Act"), or as it is most commonly known "ObamaCare", is unlikely to be repealed or revised to any significant degree. Accordingly, we here at Spilman Thomas & Battle are putting together an internal task force designed to help you navigate your employer obligations under the Affordable Care Act for when some provisions go into law next year and some in 2014. As part of that effort, Joe Garcia sets out some of the impending deadlines under the Affordable Care Act before the majority of the law goes into effect in 2014.

In addition, the President's re-election means that current enforcement priorities at the National Labor Relations Board are likely to continue for at least the next four years. In the past we have explored the Board's attitudes towards social media, and in this edition Alyesha Asghar takes a look at the Board's treatment of the standard at-will employment disclaimers contained in most employers' handbooks and acknowledgment forms. Criticism of at-will disclaimers appears to be more and more of a focus for the Board.