With one final jolt to end the year, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that the impractical joint employer test originally adopted by the Obama-era National Labor Relations Board in 2015 was properly enacted and therefore...more
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court just agreed to weigh in on a question that could prove critical to the growth—or stagnation—of the gig work labor pool: does performing gig work in between full-time jobs disqualify a worker...more
Because Congress and the president could not approve a stopgap funding bill by midnight on December 21, the federal government partially shut down, with no compromise in sight. What will this mean for employers across the...more
12/27/2018
/ Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
E-Verify ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Budget ,
Federal Contractors ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Government Agencies ,
Government Shutdown ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRB ,
Trump Administration ,
USCIS ,
Visas
On the eve of the holidays, gig businesses got a gift in the form of a ruling from a Massaschusetts federal court where a clickwrap agreement was held to be sufficient to bind a worker to an arbitration clause. The ruling in...more
12/24/2018
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Clickwrap Agreements ,
Dismissals ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Lyft ,
Misclassification ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Terms of Service ,
Wage and Hour
One of my favorite workplace law reporters, Tyrone Richardson of Bloomberg Law, had two stories in the past week addressing the issue of Congress and the gig economy. They present two sides of the same coin when it comes to...more
If Congress and the president cannot approve a stopgap funding bill by this Friday at midnight, the federal government will shut down. What will this mean for employers across the country? Because of the peculiarities of the...more
A recent decision from a federal court in California shows that there is a simple three-step process to follow if you want to ensure that your gig workers are found to be subject to your arbitration provisions. The judge’s...more
December 3 was the first day of the new legislative session in California, the first day that members could introduce bills for the 2019-2020 legislative session. If the first day is any indication, there is one issue that...more
Last week was a bad week for gig economy companies in Oregon. It wasn’t just the post-holiday malaise that so many suffer from after having to return to work following a long, relaxing weekend that probably included eating...more
12/6/2018
/ Back Wages ,
BOLI ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Liquidated Damages ,
Minimum Wage ,
Misclassification ,
Over-Time ,
Rate of Pay ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Wage and Hour
We’ve been expecting this since August, when the New York City Council passed a proposal establishing that ride-sharing driver should earn a minimum rate of pay, the first such minimum wage in the nation. Today, the other...more
The Grubhub misclassification battle, which has dominated gig economy headlines for the past year or so, has taken another interesting turn. An Uber driver has jumped into the fray, offering his opinion about why the 9th...more
11/21/2018
/ ABC Test ,
Amicus Briefs ,
Appeals ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Gig Economy ,
GrubHub ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Retroactive Application ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Uber
This year’s Cyber Monday—the first work day back after the Thanksgiving break—is once again expected to be the largest online shopping day in history. Last year, 81 million American consumers spent over $6.5 billion on...more
Sure, the monetary portion of the settlement—$10 million to a class of approximately 400 Uber software engineers and over $2.6M in attorneys’ fees—is pretty eye-opening. But perhaps the more significant part of the settlement...more
11/16/2018
/ Attorney's Fees ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Diversity ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
Race Discrimination ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Software Developers ,
Uber
The first-ever trial on the gig economy misclassification to reach a judicial merits determination has now turned into the first-ever appeal on gig economy misclassification. And late Friday evening, the plaintiff seeking to...more
One of the drawbacks of entering the gig economy as a worker is that gig businesses are somewhat hamstrung by current law from providing a raft of benefits usually associated with full-time employment. That’s because...more
As many predicted, Democrats recaptured the House for the first time in eight years in yesterday’s midterm elections, while Republicans retained and strengthened their grip on the Senate. That will lead to a dynamic in...more
11/7/2018
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Congressional Committees ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Election Results ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Elections ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
General Elections ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Immigration Reform ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Local Ordinance ,
Members of Congress ,
Paid Leave ,
Political Parties ,
Senate Committees ,
Sick Leave ,
State and Local Government ,
State Elections ,
State Labor Laws ,
Trump Administration ,
U.S. House ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
Credit Uber with being one of the first companies to enter the gig economy space and changing the way the world thinks about the entire industry. The company now seems poised to change the way you think of Uber itself....more
As if things aren’t spooky enough this time of year, employers have a new concern: getting “ghosted” by an applicant, a new hire, or even an existing employee. But this modern phenomenon isn’t just something to worry about...more
Bloomberg Law’s Jaclyn Diaz wrote a very interesting story earlier this week asking whether the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) would soon issue an opinion letter to aid gig economy companies with commonplace labor and...more
Right after the clock struck midnight yesterday morning, the U.S. Department of Labor unveiled its new regulatory agenda for Fall 2018 and announced its intention to soon tackle two of the hottest topics in the labor and...more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes for the past few years—and this past month...more
10/11/2018
/ #MeToo ,
Background Checks ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Epic Systems Corp v Lewis ,
Governor Brown ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Joint Employers ,
Lactation Accommodation ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Unions
During Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit earlier this week, Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi dropped a bombshell: the company wants to soon provide benefits to its drivers in an effort to close the gap between what is received...more
The Supreme Court term that wrapped up in June was one of the most exciting sessions for workplace law in recent memory, with several blockbuster decisions impacting a wide range of labor and employment law issues. From...more
10/5/2018
/ Age Discrimination ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Gender Identity ,
Independent Contractors ,
Public Sector ,
Retaliation ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Same-Sex Marriage ,
SCOTUS ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour
On the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year in Epic Systems Corporation v. Lewis, which held that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) does not bar class or collective action waivers in arbitration...more
10/3/2018
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Back Pay ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Epic Systems Corp v Lewis ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Independent Contractors ,
Liquidated Damages ,
Misclassification ,
Motion to Compel ,
NLRA ,
Savings Clause ,
Wage and Hour
We’ve been waiting for something like this since the gig economy was established: a set of rules and regulations, adapted for the modern era and with the gig economy in mind, addressing the issue of independent contractor...more