If your company is required to submit a federal EEO-1 report, you have until June 24, 2025 at 11:00 p.m. ET to file it online. The EEOC has already indicated there will be no grace period....more
New York State has resolved a recent judicial split regarding pay frequency violation remedies by amending the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”) to limit an employee’s ability to recover sizeable liquidated damages. New York...more
In the wake of President Trump’s “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” Executive Order (the “Executive Order”) (discussed further here), many companies are in the process of revisiting their...more
Pay transparency laws have taken the country by storm over the last few years, and 5 additional states (Illinois, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont) have debuted or will debut their own versions in 2025. ...more
The most recent amendment to New York’s Workers’ Compensation Law, which went into effect on January 1, 2025, permits any employee to seek workers’ compensation benefits when they experience a “mental injury premised upon...more
1/23/2025
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Mental Health ,
New Legislation ,
New York ,
PTSD ,
State Labor Laws ,
Work-Induced Stress ,
Workers’ Compensation ,
Workplace Safety
New York employers are – once again – required to provide employees with notice regarding New York’s reproductive health decision making protections. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated a lower court’s...more
1/22/2025
/ Compliance ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Discrimination ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
First Amendment ,
New York ,
Personal Information ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Reproductive Healthcare Issues ,
State Labor Laws ,
Vacated
A year after announcing its first-in-the-nation effort to increase access to pregnancy-related healthcare, (discussed here), New York’s “paid prenatal leave” law is officially set to take effect on January 1, 2025. Employers...more
The U.S. Supreme Court recently granted cert in a hotly contested case addressing the standards of proof applicable to reverse discrimination claims under Title VII. The case comes on the heels of the court’s decision last...more
New York’s Clean Slate Act is now effective. The Act will lead to the automatic sealing of certain criminal records and will require greater disclosure by employers of the criminal history they can consider in connection...more
11/20/2024
/ Background Checks ,
Conditional Job Offers ,
Criminal Background Checks ,
Criminal Records ,
Duty of Care ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Labor Regulations ,
New York ,
Sealed Records
Political conflicts in the workplace will only grow as we near election day, and this means human resources professionals and in house counsel need to hone their conflict resolution skills. Resolving political conflict in...more
9/5/2024
/ Conflict Resolution ,
Dress Codes ,
Employee Training ,
Employment Policies ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
NLRA ,
Political Campaigns ,
Political Expression ,
Political Speech
A judge in the Northern District of Texas issued an order setting aside the Federal Trade Commission’s rule banning non-compete agreements and ordered that the rule shall not be enforced or otherwise take effect on September...more
On August 14th, a second federal judge, this time out of the Middle District of Florida, temporarily blocked the FTC’s rule banning non-compete agreements, but only as to the named plaintiff in that case. In Properties of...more
New York employers are now required to provide up to 30 minutes of paid break time each time an employee has a reasonable need to express breast milk. While New York employers have been required to provide breaks to nursing...more
On April 23, 2024, by a 3-2 margin, the FTC voted to finalize its controversial non-compete rule, which, generally, will prohibit businesses from entering into non-compete agreements with nearly all workers across the U.S....more
4/26/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Bans ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
FTC Act ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Trade Secrets
The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) officially debuted its new “Know Your Rights at Work” poster and Workers’ Bill of Rights website. The poster, which links to the DCWP website via a QR...more
4/23/2024
/ City of New York ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Sick Leave ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
Following the recent failed attempt at broadly banning non-compete agreements in New York statewide (discussed here), three new bills were just introduced to do the same, this time in New York City. The most comprehensive,...more
3/14/2024
/ Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Legislative Agendas ,
New York ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
State and Local Government ,
State Bans ,
State Labor Laws
With the Super Bowl taking place this weekend and March Madness just around the corner, many offices are abuzz with discussions of squares, brackets, and other sports-betting pools. The benefits of company-wide contests are...more
Hoping to “raise the bar” for the rest of the nation, Governor Hochul announced a first of its kind proposal that would allow qualifying workers in New York up to 40 hours of paid leave to attend prenatal appointments. While...more
1/18/2024
/ Disability Leave ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Medical Leave ,
New Legislation ,
New York ,
Paid Leave ,
Pregnancy ,
Wage and Hour
The City of Chicago recently enacted a new Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave ordinance. Though initially slated to go into effect December 31, 2023, on December 13, 2023, the Chicago City Council voted to amend the...more
12/22/2023
/ Cause of Action Accrual ,
City of Chicago ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Documentation ,
Eligibility ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Notice Requirements ,
Paid Leave ,
Paid Sick Leave ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Recordkeeping Requirements
Many employers experienced whiplash in 2023 from the flurry of judicial, administrative and legislative activity aimed at restricting the use of employee non-competition, non-solicitation, and non-disclosure agreements. Can...more
12/20/2023
/ California ,
Employees ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Injunctive Relief ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Private Right of Action ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Trade Secrets
Although 2023 perhaps did not see the passage of any laws quite as impactful as 2022—which, as employers will recall, included New York State enacting its own pay transparency law (see here) and novel New York City Council...more
12/15/2023
/ #MeToo ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Earned Sick and Safe Time Act ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Facebook ,
Freelance Isn't Free Act (FIFA) ,
Freelance Workers ,
Harassment ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Minimum Wage ,
New York ,
NYDOL ,
Pay Transparency ,
Remote Working ,
Retaliation ,
Settlement ,
State Labor Laws ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Theft ,
WARN Act
In an effort to further restrict the use of confidentiality clauses when resolving employment discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, New York recently passed S4516, which amends Section 5-336 of the New York...more