During the Trump years, the National Labor Relations Board (meaning, the actual five-member Board in Washington, whose decisions drive interpretations of federal labor law) got a lot less friendly to organized labor, and a...more
Last week, the Trump-era independent contractor classification rule was officially eradicated by the U.S. Department of Labor, (“DOL”) due to its apparent inconsistency with the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The rule,...more
As we have previously noted on this blog, a central aim of the Trump administration was to take aim at—and rescind—Obama-era labor rules. The Trump Department of Labor (DOL) took what was perceived as a consistently...more
Lawsuits and Laws In Vogue: What To Keep an Eye On in 2021 -
Emerging vaccines bring hope during the ongoing pandemic, but there’s little relief in sight for the upward trend in COVID-19-related lawsuits. Adding to that,...more
1/14/2021
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Labor Regulations ,
Occupational Exposure ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Remote Working ,
Retaliation ,
Webinars ,
Whistleblowers ,
Workplace Illness and Injury Reporting ,
Workplace Safety
The impact of the legal definition of “employee” versus “independent contractor” under the Fair Labor Standard Act (“FLSA”) and other employment laws cannot be understated. The FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime...more
The independent contractor/employee classification conundrum is nothing new. Courts, state legislatures, and even the IRS have developed a slew of multi-factor tests to assess whether a worker is an employee or independent...more
How times change. In 2017, a foul-mouthed advocate of purported employee rights delighted in outing on Facebook his boss—a hard-driving banquet manager who clearly didn’t get the whole employee-relations thing—as a “nasty...more
This week, in 800 River Road Operating Company, LLC d/b/a Care One at New Milford, 369 NLRB No. 109, the National Labor Relations Board overruled a 2016 decision, and held that an employer does not have a duty to bargain over...more
Governor Cuomo signed the groundbreaking harassment legislation that we previously covered here on August 12, 2019. The law profoundly alters the landscape of harassment claims in New York and how employers should be prepared...more
Clichés like “seismic shift” and “paradigm change” do not begin to describe just how profoundly the New York legislature changed the standards for harassment claims in a bill passed June 19. HR professionals and employers...more
On Monday May 6, 2019, a Florida federal judge denied a strip club’s bid for sanctions against an exotic dancer and her lawyer who filed a so-called “cookie-cutter” Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit, depriving the strip club...more
The New York City Human Rights Law prohibits employers, housing providers, and providers of public accommodations from discriminating against an individual on the basis of race. The New York City Commission on Human Rights...more
For decades, technological innovation has changed our world at a rapid pace. Across industries and departments, businesses have a plethora of new and exciting technology and tools they can utilize to deliver products and...more
On March 26th, the New Jersey Assembly passed legislation that requires employers in New Jersey to provide earned sick leave to their employees. The legislation was then passed by the New Jersey Senate on April 12th, and...more
On March 26th, the New Jersey Assembly passed legislation that requires employers in New Jersey to provide earned sick leave to their employees. The legislation was then passed by the New Jersey Senate on April 12th, and now...more
Retail employers beware: New York City’s predictive scheduling law went into effect on November 26, 2017, and now New York State is now getting in the mix. The New York State Department of Labor (“NYSDOL”) recently released...more
You can count Congress among the institutions caught in the ground swell of the #MeToo movement, and they’re using the tax code to prove it.
Buried in the various changes of the new tax bill, Congress included Section...more
As January draws to a close, New York employers are confronting the reality of many new laws and regulations that govern the employment relationship – from the new Paid Family Leave law, to the new federal tax law. We are...more
1/22/2018
/ Earned Sick Time ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Freelance Isn't Free Act (FIFA) ,
Local Ordinance ,
Minimum Wage ,
Over-Time ,
Paid Family Leave Law ,
Paid Leave ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules
Over the past year, we have all watched the garish spectacle of various sexual harassment scandals take down powerful men in media, Silicon Valley, and most recently Hollywood, where allegations of Harvey Weinstein’s lurid...more
On Saturday, August 12, as the nation watched, protests in Charlottesville, Virginia regarding the anticipated removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee turned deadly. In the days and weeks after, both the...more
The highest court of the European Union recently issued two judgments allowing employers to ban the visible wearing of political, philosophical or religious signs at the workplace (Judgment of the Court of Justice of the...more
Law firms are often retained by employers facing the fast-paced, distracting, emotionally charged experience of unionization efforts. Part of the union organizing process is legal in nature, and part feels more like politics,...more
It came as no surprise, as reported in a Law360 analysis on May 2, that cases brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) continue to trend upward. The FLSA was for many years a sleepy, antiquated, Depression-era...more