The COVID-19 pandemic has raised new and important questions for employers, including those about balancing employee privacy with the need to warn employees about possible exposure to the novel coronavirus. Here are some...more
On the same day the President signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act that expanded Family Medical Leave Act ("FMLA") protections and provided emergency paid sick and child care leave to many workers (discussed in...more
Yesterday, as part of the New York State on Pause executive order, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that all “non-essential” businesses and non-profits must keep all of their workers home. This in-person workforce reduction is...more
On March 18, 2020, the President signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (the “Act”), a COVID-19 relief package that includes new obligations for all employers with between 1 and 499 employees regarding...more
The recent outbreak of 2019-nCOV, a flu-like respiratory illness better known as the Coronavirus, is causing employers to ready themselves for a variety of responses to the spread of the virus. Human Resources professionals...more
3/4/2020
/ Best Practices ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Health and Safety ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Public Health ,
Risk Management ,
Workplace Safety
Earlier this month, New York State passed a new law prohibiting discrimination against employees based on a new protected class: reproductive health decision making. New York Labor Law § 203-e was signed into law by Governor...more
As detailed in our June 2019 alert, the New York State legislature passed sweeping legislation designed to increase protections against workplace sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination under the New York State...more
As discussed in a previous alert, the 2018–19 New York State budget included provisions designed to combat sexual harassment in the workplace, including a ban on compelled arbitration of sexual harassment claims. Recently,...more
On June 3, 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII’s administrative exhaustion requirement is not a jurisdictional predicate for litigation and that an employer who fails to raise this defense has waived it.
In a...more
6/6/2019
/ Affirmative Defenses ,
Amended Complaints ,
Appeals ,
Charge-Filing Preconditions ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Forfeiture ,
Fort Bend County Texas v Davis ,
Jurisdictional Requirements ,
Mandatory Claim-Processing Rules ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Time-Barred Claims ,
Title VII ,
Waiver Rule ,
Wrongful Termination
On April 1, 2019, the New York City Human Rights Commission released its free online sexual harassment training that complies with the Stop Sexual Harassment in NYC Act (Local Law 96). As discussed in a prior alert on this...more
On March 17, 2019, amendments to the New York City Human Rights Law went into effect that require New York City employers with four or more employees to provide their employees with reasonable unpaid or paid break time and a...more
As we mentioned in our May 2018 alert, New York State recently passed new legislation requiring all employers in the state to adopt sexual harassment prevention policies and implement training. New York State has now...more
Earlier this year, the New York City Council passed the “Temporary Schedule Change” law, which provides employees with the right to request a change to their work schedules to accommodate certain medical and family care...more
On April 12, 2018, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the 2018-2019 New York State budget, which imposes substantial new obligations on employers with respect to combating sexual harassment in the workplace....more
On February 26, 2018, the Second Circuit ruled for the first time that discrimination based on sexual orientation is unlawful under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The question at issue in Zarda v. Altitude...more
3/8/2018
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gender Identity ,
Gender Neutral ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
Protected Class ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
Resolving a Circuit split, the United States Supreme Court unanimously held last week that an employee must report a securities violation to the Securities and Exchange Commission if he wishes to avail himself of the...more
3/8/2018
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Digital Realty Trust Inc v Somers ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Internal Reporting ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On May 5, 2018, an amendment to the New York City Earned Sick Time Act will take effect, expanding the law to allow paid leave to be used by employees when they or their family members are victims of family offense matters...more
On December 8, 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a decision in favor of Hearst Corporation (“Hearst”) in the Wang v. Hearst Corp intern classification case. The Court addressed the proper...more
12/22/2017
/ Appeals ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Hearst ,
Internships ,
Media ,
Misclassification ,
Printed Publications ,
Unpaid Interns ,
Wage and Hour
On Tuesday, August 29, 2017, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announcedthat the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would stay the new EEO- 1 pay reporting requirements that had been scheduled to...more
9/6/2017
/ Data Collection ,
EEO-1 ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
OMB ,
Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Gap ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Wage and Hour
On July 19, 2017, the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board (the “Board”) released the final rules (the “Final Rules”) regarding the rights and responsibilities of employees, employers, and insurance carriers under the...more
On May 24, 2017, the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board (the “Board”) released a revised set of proposed rules regarding the rights and responsibilities of employees, employers, and insurance carriers under the New...more
On May 4, 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a new law enacted by the City Council that restricts New York City employers from inquiring about or relying on a prospective employee’s salary history. Under the law, employers...more
In a shift from its earlier interpretations, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit overruled its prior precedent and held in Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, No. 15-1720, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 5839...more
On February 22, 2017, the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board (the “Board”) released proposed rules (the “Proposed Rules”)i establishing the rights and responsibilities of employees, employers, and insurance carriers...more
On December 28, 2016, the New York State Department of Labor adopted regulations implementing minimum wage increases that Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law earlier in the year. Starting on December 31, 2016, the minimum...more