The United States Supreme Court has held that the evidentiary standards for “reverse discrimination” claims under federal employment law must be the same as those set for claims brought by members of minority groups....more
6/9/2025
/ Appeals ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Evidentiary Standards ,
Reverse Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration
In a widely expected move, Acting National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) General Counsel William Cohen rescinded a range of Biden Administration labor-law policies, including high-profile directives that targeted...more
2/21/2025
/ Biden Administration ,
Deregulation ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Rescission ,
Trump Administration ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Unions
On November 15, 2024, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas overturned a 2024 rule that raised the salary threshold for workers to qualify for an exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act...more
11/22/2024
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Vacated ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
The United States Supreme Court recently clarified the law that applies to federal workplace discrimination claims based on an employee’s allegation that he or she was transferred to a job they didn’t want for a prohibited...more
4/22/2024
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Employee Transfers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Lateral Transfers ,
Muldrow v City of St Louis ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Title VII
Abruzzo has been busy. Within the last few months, she has issued two notable memorandums that could have significant impacts on how employers must comply with the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). It is important to...more
6/5/2023
/ Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Policy Memorandums ,
Proposed Rules ,
Proprietary Information ,
Public Comment ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Section 7 ,
Severance Agreements
It is safe to say that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) went mainstream in 2023. With the widening acceptance of AI, dozens of industries have raced to adopt the technology into various operations at a staggering pace...more
5/19/2023
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Automation Systems ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Job Applicants ,
New Guidance ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
OSTP ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Request For Information
Employee reductions and terminations are an unfortunate result of economic downturns. Even during good economic times, many companies face the need to reduce their workforce or terminate the employment of individual...more
3/3/2023
/ Confidentiality Agreements ,
Contract Terms ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hiring & Firing ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Non-Disparagement Provisions ,
Release Agreements ,
Section 7 ,
Separation Agreement ,
Severance Agreements ,
Termination
As union organizing increases and covers industries not traditionally captured by unions, the landscape for employers is changing rapidly. Below are the key items employers (both union and non-union) should keep in mind for...more
Employers with 100 or more employees should continue to develop policies requiring workers either to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or to submit to weekly testing and other safety requirements, in the expectation that...more
11/9/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Biden Administration ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Covered Employer ,
Employer Mandates ,
Employment Policies ,
Masks ,
OSHA ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Reporting Requirements ,
State and Local Government ,
Stays ,
Temporary Regulations ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing
On-farm agriculture operations have been excluded from federal labor law since 1935. California filled this gap by creating its own law in 1975, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act (“ALRA”)....more
6/24/2021
/ Agricultural Workers ,
Cedar Point Nursery v Hassid ,
Farm Workers ,
Farms ,
Fifth Amendment ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Just Compensation ,
SCOTUS ,
Takings Clause ,
Unions ,
United Farm Workers
With the United States experiencing the largest surge in cases since the COVID-19 crisis began, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) recently granted emergency-use authorization of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19...more
A recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board (the “NLRB” or “Board”) makes it easier for employers to change workplace rules without discussing the change with the union representing their employees.
As...more
9/13/2019
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Contract Drafting ,
Contract Negotiations ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Rights ,
Employment Policies ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Unilateral Modification ,
Unions
Today’s workforce is more mobile than in past generations. Long gone are the days when an employee started and ended a career at the same company. ...more
Employers who use non-compete agreements take note: Minnesota courts want to see more than just words in a contract before they will grant injunctive relief against a former employee.
This week, the Supreme Court of...more
The Minnesota Court of Appeals has ruled that the City of Minneapolis (“City”) may continue to enforce its Sick and Safe Time Ordinance (“Ordinance”) against employers that reside within city limits while a lawsuit...more
The Trump Administration has suspended 2016 regulations that would have required larger employers and federal contractors to report payroll data to the federal government along with the demographic data that they now must...more
Some of the trickiest employment decisions can involve employees who have made accusatory complaints against the company they work for. Many state and federal laws protect “whistleblowers” who try to bring to light illegal...more
An opinion issued by the Minnesota Supreme Court on August 9, 2017, could be the basis for more lawsuits by employees accusing employers of retaliating against them for reporting alleged wrongdoing. The case is Friedlander v....more
Federal contractors must provide their employees up to seven days of paid sick leave each year under a final rule published September 30, 2016, by the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”). The DOL estimates that the final rule...more
Employers who require employees to sign arbitration agreements as a condition of employment should take care: A split is developing among the federal appellate courts regarding the enforceability of so-called “concerted...more
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has released a new proposal that, if adopted, would require larger employers and federal contractors to report payroll data for all workers to the federal government...more
Certain provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (“OSHA’s”) new reporting Rule, which go into effect on August 10, 2016, implicate employers’ post-injury and post-accident drug-testing policies. As...more
In a decision that will affect staffing companies and the employers that use them, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has smoothed the path for unions that seek to organize and represent permanent and temporary...more
Question: My company recently terminated an employee, and we are very worried she accessed her email inappropriately in the days before she was fired. The timing of it all is … well, quirky.
Here’s what happened: The...more
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) has issued a long-awaited update to the rules that prohibit sex discrimination by federal contractors. The changes take effect on August...more