On January 10, 2023, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed Assembly Bill No. 4768, allowing significant amendments to the Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act (NJ WARN) to take effect on April 10, 2023,...more
Unions were busy in 2022, making well-documented gains in organizing not seen for decades. At the end of the year, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) lent unions support with a flurry of activity that likely...more
On September 6, 2022, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) proposed a new rule for determining joint-employer status under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Since 2020, a joint employer finding required proof of...more
Governor Kathy Hochul is considering a bill that would require New York employers with four or more employees to include compensation information on advertisements for any job, promotion, or transfer opportunity....more
In 2019, in response to #MeToo, New Jersey amended its Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) to ban from employment contracts or settlement agreements provisions intended to conceal the details of discrimination, retaliation, or...more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have each issued substantively similar technical assistance documents explaining how employers’ use of algorithmic decision-making...more
Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (Act) gives employees the right “to engage in . . . concerted activities for the purpose of . . . mutual aid or protection.” One common issue that the National Labor Relations...more
In 2019, New Jersey amended its Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) to include a provision purporting to ban agreements requiring employees to arbitrate claims arising under the NJLAD (Amendment). On February 15, 2022, a New...more
On November 10, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Office of the General Counsel (GC), issued a memorandum with its position on unionized employers’ bargaining obligations when implementing the Occupational Safety and...more
11/18/2021
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Employment Policies ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
OSHA ,
Unions ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Wage and Hour
On October 12, 2021, a court in the Northern District of New York preliminarily enjoined the New York State Department of Health’s (DOH) COVID-19 vaccination rule for healthcare employees to the extent it required employers...more
11/17/2021
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Exemption ,
Title VII ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
On October 28, 2021, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation enhancing the protections available to individuals who claim retaliation for reporting alleged employer wrongdoing. The legislation (S.4394A/A.5144A)...more
Building on efforts that began in early in his tenure, Governor Murphy of New Jersey recently signed four bills into law that expand the power of the state to identify and combat alleged worker misclassification....more
On March 18, 2019, New Jersey amended the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) to include a provision that rendered unenforceable any “provision in an employment contract that waives any substantive or procedural...more
On Thursday, June 18, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a pamphlet with “guidance to assist employers and workers in safely returning to work and reopening businesses deemed by local...more
6/22/2020
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Non-Essential Businesses ,
Re-Opening Guidelines ,
Return-to-Work Agreements ,
Social Distancing ,
Workplace Safety
Last week, the EEOC updated its Q&As for “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws”. Here are some highlights...more
Governor Cuomo is sent new legislation related to the Coronavirus to New York State lawmakers yesterday. The legislation would protect employees who are required to stay home from work because they are being isolated or...more
3/10/2020
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Best Practices ,
Business Continuity Plans ,
China ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Crisis Management ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Health and Safety ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Medical Leave ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Public Health ,
Risk Management ,
Sick Leave ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Safety
Last week, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed an amendment to the New Jersey WARN Act, dramatically expanding the Act’s reach. Effective July 19, 2020, the amendment makes the Act one of the most stringent state WARN...more
1/31/2020
/ Employer Liability Issues ,
Failure to Comply ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Labor Regulations ,
Layoff Notices ,
Layoffs ,
Notice Requirements ,
Penalties ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Regulatory Standards ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
WARN Act
Employers beware: New Jersey’s salary history ban, signed this past summer, takes effect on January 1, 2020. On that date, New Jersey will join several other states (including New York and California) by prohibiting private...more
12/5/2019
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Pay ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Labor Regulations ,
New Legislation ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Pay Gap ,
Salary/Wage History ,
State and Local Government ,
State Bans ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
Consistent with its intent to relax scrutiny regarding the legality of employment policies (see here and here), the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) recently upheld, in LA Specialty Produce Co., two...more
On June 26, 2019, Judge Denise Cote, of the Southern District of New York, granted a motion to compel arbitration of an employment discrimination, retaliation and sexual harassment claim—despite recently passed NY law, NY...more
7/2/2019
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Contract Terms ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Motion to Compel ,
Retaliation ,
Sexual Harassment
Many employers offer paid parental leave policies to employees, affording new parents paid time off to care for a new child. Though some employers offer paid parental leave to both new mothers and fathers of equal length,...more
6/4/2019
/ Caregivers ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Maternity Leave ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Parental Leave ,
Paternity Leave ,
Risk Management ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Title VII
Recent #MeToo-inspired media attention to workplace sexual harassment claims has caused a number of states to pass employee-friendly legislation intended to help prevent such conduct. ...more
3/28/2019
/ #MeToo ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Harassment ,
Hostile Environment ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws
Following up on a recent post about the intricacies of mandatory arbitration agreements in the workplace, the New Jersey Appellate Division recently held that an arbitration clause that employees did not explicitly agree to...more
Last week, both houses of the New Jersey Legislature passed a sweeping equal pay bill that Governor Phil Murphy is expected to sign promptly. When passed into law, it will be one of the most strict equal pay statutes in the...more
4/5/2018
/ Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Pay ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gender Equity ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Pay Gap ,
Pending Legislation ,
Sex Discrimination ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
During a Congressional hearing on March 6th, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta unveiled a six-month pilot program intended to encourage employers to self-audit and self-report accidental violations of the Fair Labor Standards...more