
It’s still not too late to make a fool of yourself over a colleague for Valentine’s Day, so here’s a brief reminder of what may happen if you do.
It’s still not too late to make a fool of yourself over a colleague for Valentine’s Day, so here’s a brief reminder of what may happen if you do.
One of the hallmarks of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE Act 2.0) legislation was to increase participation in retirement plans. On January 10, 2025, the Treasury Department and the IRS came one step closer when they announced the issuance of proposed regulations requiring automatic enrollment for new Code Section 401(k) and 403(b) retirement plans (Proposed Regulations). As background, the SECURE Act 2.0 added Code Section 414A, which provides that a retirement plan will not be qualified unless it satisfies certain automatic enrollment requirements under Code Section 414(w). These requirements:
It is clear from the press in recent weeks that there has been a widespread shift in terms of how much homeworking employers are willing to allow and indeed, in some cases, an almost complete volte face – with numerous house-hold name employers reportedly mandating their staff to work four or five days in the office. Towards the end of last week, the BBC reported that Lord Sugar is telling workers to get their (if you’ll pardon the phrase) “bums back to the office”. Indeed, KPMG’s latest CEO Outlook at the end of 2024 revealed that
“CEOs are hardening their stance on returning to pre-pandemic ways of working, with 83 percent expecting a full return to the office within the next three years – a notable increase from 64 percent in 2023”.
In a timely blog post on our firm’s Pensions and Benefits blog, Squire Patton Boggs’ Stacey Grundman and Joseph Yonadi, Jr. of our Tax Strategy & Benefits practice discussed recent changes to the Department of Labor’s Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program. The changes added a Self-Correction Component for fiduciary failures and finalized an amendment to an existing prohibited transaction exemption that provides excise tax relief for transactions that have been self-corrected. These new changes become effective March 17, 2025. Read the full update on these important changes here.
A couple of weeks ago we asked readers of this blog to answer a couple of questions on their organisation’s use of (generative) artificial intelligence, and we promised to circle back with the results. So, drum roll, the results are now in.
Considering the fluidity of the current US/Mexico situation and the potential for the escalation of destabilizing tariffs, we prepared a short summary of available employment options in Mexico for companies to keep in mind as they consider their operations in that country.
Under Mexican labor law, there are primarily three ways for companies to terminate all employment in a non-unionized facility: (i) collective termination of all employment relationships, (ii) collective suspension of all employment relationships, or (iii) mutual termination of individual employment relationships.
Following President Trump’s Executive Order “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” on January 24, acting U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Vincent Micone issued an agency Order instructing DOL employees to cease and desist “all investigative and enforcement activity” under Executive Order 11246 (Equal Employment Opportunity) as the Secretary said the DOL “no longer has any authority” under the rescinded order. The Secretary further stated that the order applies to “all DOL employees, including the OFCCP, OALJ, and ARB.”
In just his first days in office, President Donald Trump has signaled that his Administration’s efforts to curb Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices will start with the federal government but may soon have sweeping impacts on the private sector. This post details President Trump’s Executive Order that directs the U.S. Department of Justice, and other agencies, to begin preparing to combat the DEI initiatives of private employers, and what’s to be expected in the months ahead.
It’s been a little more than a week since Inauguration Day, but the seismic shifts of presidential change in Washington, D.C. continue, now extending to and impacting the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board). On January 28, President Donald Trump shook up the NLRB with two major personnel decisions: one anticipated, the other unprecedented.
📅February 5, 2025, 12 – 1 p.m. ET
Join us for a timely webinar where we will highlight some of the key issues employers are facing in light of the recent executive orders signed by President Trump.
The orders impacting employers include an order ending certain federal contractor affirmative action requirements and terminating federal DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) policies, immigration orders focusing on birthright citizenship, extreme vetting of foreign nationals, border enforcement and the suspension of US refugee and asylum processing. President Trump also rescinded several Biden Administration executive orders related to immigration.
Partners Jill Kirila, Carmen Cole and Sam Mudrick will discuss: