Both the House and Senate have approved a bill that allows victims of workplace sexual assault and sexual harassment to take their claims to court instead of being forced to arbitration. In a rare show of partisanship,...more
3/4/2022
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Biden Administration ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
New Legislation ,
Sexual Assault ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance
We are all familiar with the phrase “No good deed goes unpunished.” That apparently is the theme of an Eighth Circuit opinion reviewing an employee’s suit alleging that she was improperly denied an accommodation under the...more
What is the right way to dismiss a case the parties have settled, and are FLSA cases different? Typically, when parties to a lawsuit settle a case, they merely alert the court of the settlement and then file a stipulation of...more
2/15/2022
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Minimum Wage ,
Misclassification ,
Settlement ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour
As we all know, the Supreme Court stayed the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employers with 100 or more employees. As of today, OSHA has withdrawn that emergency temporary standard.
The announcement notes that:...more
In an opinion stating that they believe that opponents of the OSHA ETS on Vaccinations and Testing will be successful in their challenge to that standard, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday reinstated federal court stays that...more
1/14/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Biden v Missouri ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Lack of Authority ,
National Federation of Independent Business v Department of Labor and OSHA ,
OSHA ,
SCOTUS ,
Stays ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
In light of the difficulty of test scheduling and concerns about costs to consumers, the Biden administration this week announced that the Department of Health and Human Services will require private health insurance and...more
Despite all of our hopes and prayers for an end to the pandemic, we still have employees who are exposed to or testing positive for COVID-19, and we still need to figure out how to deal with those issues. The CDC issued new...more
1/7/2022
/ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employees ,
Employment Policies ,
Health and Safety ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Masks ,
New Guidance ,
Quarantine ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
In the ever-changing vaccine mandate legal tennis match, the Sixth Circuit on Friday entered an opinion lifting the Fifth Circuit’s stay of OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard on COVID-19 vaccines and testing. Companies with...more
If you suspend an employee with pay, is that an adverse employment action? Funny you should ask as the Eleventh Circuit issued an opinion this week on this very subject. In this case, a former congressman sued his former...more
As most employers already know, OSHA’s newly announced COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) is set to take effect January 4, 2022, and will require, among other things, that workers at U.S. companies with at least 100...more
11/10/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
OSHA ,
Premature Claims ,
Stays ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing
The OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard is hot off the presses — now what? Undoubtedly, there will be lots and lots of discussion and legal challenges over the next several days. Although this is not an in-depth analysis, here...more
11/5/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Deadlines ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Health and Safety ,
New Rules ,
OSHA ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
Yesterday, President Biden announced that he is entering two Executive Orders requiring COVID-19 vaccines for federal workers and contractors and that administrative agencies (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services...more
9/13/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Mandates ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Infectious Diseases ,
OSHA ,
Privately Held Corporations ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
In another chapter in litigation alliteration, in Maner v. Dignity Health, f/k/a Catholic Healthcare West, the Ninth Circuit held that a male employee’s theory that his supervisor’s long-term romantic relationship with a...more
9/9/2021
/ Discrimination ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Preferred Treatment ,
Retaliation ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Summary Judgment ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
Workplace Romances
With Delta variant infections on the rise, the Biden administration recently announced that “every federal government employee and onsite contractor will be asked to attest to their vaccination status,” and that anyone who...more
On July 21, the DOL announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to enforce the Biden Administration’s Executive Order raising the minimum wage for workers under federal contracts to $15 per hour. The proposed rule would go into...more
As we discussed in April, the Biden administration halted the implementation of some of the Trump administration’s changes to the rules on taking a tip credit for non-tipped work. For those that never have had a server job,...more
7/1/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Comment Period ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employees ,
Food Service Workers ,
Minimum Wage ,
New Rules ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour
You may have missed it, but Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh perked up some ears last week when he discussed possibly raising the FLSA salary threshold for certain exempt employees. In testimony before a Congressional...more
The Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor unveiled a new program, “Essential Workers—Essential Protections,” that focuses on making sure employers comply with overtime and other wage requirements for workers on...more
If you are an employer with under 500 employees, you may be eligible for a tax credit for paid leave provided to your employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccination or for paid leave they take to recover from any illness or...more
Employers seeking to diversify their workforces need to remember that Title VII’s prohibition on class-based discrimination still applies — even if your motives are pure. The EEOC announced that it settled a lawsuit in which...more
An Equal Pay Act plaintiff must show that employees of the opposite sex were paid different wages for equal work. Pretty simple — right? However, there are many factors that go into deciding what is “equal work” or whether...more
2020 is in the rearview mirror. Whew! Unfortunately, COVID-19 is not gone and certainly not forgotten. The latest hot topic has been what to do with employees who think they should get paid leave for COVID-19 reasons that...more
1/5/2021
/ Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Deadlines ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) ,
Financial Stimulus ,
New Legislation ,
Paid Leave ,
Paid Sick Leave ,
Tax Credits
It was a mess of times. It was the masked of times. We all probably agree that 2020 presented unexpected and unwanted challenges to employers. It certainly made all of us address unprecedented issues. Let’s look back at some...more
12/30/2020
/ Business Closures ,
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Dress Codes ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Financial Stimulus ,
Political Speech ,
Relief Measures ,
Title IX ,
Vaccinations ,
Wage and Hour
Just when you thought you had the rules down for when and how long an employee has to quarantine, the CDC changes the rules. Or has it? In its guidance, When You Can Be Around Others After You Had or Likely Had COVID-19...more
The EEOC is trying to make it easier to get information about employment trends and has launched EEOC Explore, “an interactive data query and mapping tool” that gives you access to aggregate data on more than 56 million...more