Valuable info abounds in 'Guide to Workplace Law'

"The business of America is business." That quote from Calvin Coolidge won't be found in "The American Bar Association Guide to Workplace Law," but little else is missing. In fact, the book's subtitle "Everything You Need to Know About Your Rights as an Employee or Employer" accurately describes the comprehensive treatment of the employer-employee relationship in its 192 pages.

Primary author Barbara J. Fick, an associate professor of law at Notre Dame Law School specializing in labor employment law and dispute resolution, puts her background as a former field attorney for the National Labor Relations Board to good use.

She deftly provides a brief yet thorough overview of the intricacies of the employer-employee relationship and all in clear language free of the dreaded legalese. Two appendices one defining terms found in federal law, the other offering additional sources of information on labor and employment laws add to the book' s overall value.

Both labor and management will find much to learn in the book's clear, understandable explanation of federal and state labor and employment laws, protections available to employees, limitations on employers, and ways of enforcing labor laws.

Among the issues touched upon are the Family and Medical Leave Act