Minimum Wage Updates On March 28, 2019, Maryland’s legislators voted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15.00 per hour by January 1, 2025 for employers with 15 or more employees and July 1, 2026 for employers with 14 or fewer employees.… Continue Reading
Expanding on their previous post on the subject, on April 3, 2019, Law360 published the following article authored by Squire Patton Boggs labor and employment attorneys Laura Lawless Robertson and Melissa Legault. The U.S. Department of Labor recently issued a trio of opinion letters offering employers guidance in implementing the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Fair Labor … Continue Reading
The National Labor Relations Board has once again clarified whether certain types of employee handbook policies will violate federal labor law. Employers should take note of these two new guidance memoranda, as they can help employers maximize the protection they afford to their confidential information, brands, equipment, and other important matters.… Continue Reading
Minimum Wage Updates On January 17, 2019, New Jersey’s governor and state legislators agreed to a deal that will raise the state’s minimum wage to $15.00 by 2024. The current minimum wage in New Jersey is $8.85 an hour. Under the new law, the state’s minimum wage will increase to $10.00 an hour on July … Continue Reading
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), employers are required to pay non-exempt employees a minimum hourly wage of $7.25. However, employers with “tipped employees” are able to pay such employees a cash wage of $2.13 per hour and take a “tip credit” toward their minimum wage obligation to make up the difference between the … Continue Reading
Much attention over the past few years has been given to the ongoing saga concerning the standard applied by National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) to determine when two unrelated business entities share sufficient control over a group of employees such that they may be deemed “joint employers” under the National Labor Relations Act … Continue Reading
On December 7, 2018, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit unanimously held in Hustvet v. Allina Health System that an employer did not unlawfully terminate an employee who refused to receive a rubella vaccination. The plaintiff, a healthcare specialist working with potentially vulnerable patients, requested an accommodation exempting … Continue Reading
The change in administration following the 2016 election resulted in a change in the political makeup of the National Labor Relations Board. That, in turn, led to a number of significant changes in the law, affecting a wide range of labor relations issues and impacting both unionized and non-union employers. Please join us on October 10 … Continue Reading
Earlier this year, the United States Supreme Court held in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis that employers can require employees to agree to arbitrate disputes between them solely on an individual basis and to waive class and collective action litigation procedures without running afoul of federal law. (See our post here). Addressing an issue not … Continue Reading
We’ve been keeping you apprised of the many developments over the past few years coming from the United States Supreme Court and other courts concerning agreements between employers and their employees to arbitrate disputes arising out of the employment relationship. The Supreme Court’s decision last term in Epic Systems v. Lewis, which we discussed in … Continue Reading
As we discussed in our previous posts – see here and here – in April 2018, New York passed legislation intended to combat workplace sexual harassment. Under this new law, employers are required to implement and distribute to employees a written policy prohibiting sexual harassment by October 9, 2018. To assist employers in complying, in … Continue Reading
Right-to-work laws prohibit employers from entering into union security or “closed shop” agreements with unions that require employees to join and financially support a union in order to obtain employment. Twenty-seven U.S. states presently have such laws. In some states that do not have these laws, cities have passed local right-to-work ordinances to apply to … Continue Reading
Rule Would Return To Direct and Immediate Control Test, But Adds New Requirement That Such Control Be “Substantial” On September 14, 2018, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) published in the Federal Register a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Notice”) proposing a new rule to be applied by the NLRB to determine whether … Continue Reading
When a public relations issue strikes, it can be difficult to find time to implement new procedures or educate employees on new legal concepts. This is particularly true where social media can trigger a public relations crisis almost instantaneously. Accordingly, an organization should develop a public relations response plan before it needs one.… Continue Reading
On August 23, 2018, the New York State Department of Labor (“NYSDOL”) released written guidance addressing new requirements under New York State law that are designed to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. The material outlines proposed minimum standards, training requirements and other compliance materials for the new state law. This release comes as the … Continue Reading
As most union and non-union employers know, the National Labor Relations Board has updated its standards in several respects over the past year. For some of these updates, the Board has not comprehensively clarified how far they extend or when they apply. In an effort to help clarify employers’ obligations, the Board’s top prosecutor, General … Continue Reading
Massachusetts Imposes One-Year Cap and Other Restrictions On Non-Compete Agreements The Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act (see link, at Section 24L) (“MNAA”) effective October 1, 2018, places new restrictions on the length and applicability of non-compete agreements between employers and employees who work within the state of Massachusetts. (Note that the law defines employees to include … Continue Reading
Earlier this decade, hardly a week passed without some court or agency interpreting the joint employment doctrine more expansively than before. Although the National Labor Relations Board created many of these headlines by attempting to treat McDonald’s as the joint employer of its franchisees’ employees and expanding its joint employment test, many courts and other … Continue Reading
By Wm. Michael Hanna, Emily R. Spivack, and Dylan Yepez On June 27, 2018, the United States Supreme Court decided in a 5-4 decision that public sector unions may no longer collect so-called “fair share” fees from non-members. The decision will have broad implications for public sector unions and employers. Fair share fees are charged … Continue Reading
Last December, the National Labor Relations Board issued a groundbreaking decision that gave both union and non-union employers more flexibility to protect their interests through employee handbooks and other written policies. This week, the Board’s top prosecutor – General Counsel Peter Robb – expanded on that decision and further clarified when an employers’ written policies … Continue Reading
It’s summertime in the U.S., school’s out, and employees are heading off to visit family, the beach, mountains, national parks, and everywhere else, which means it’s a good time for employers to review their vacation policies and practices. No federal or state laws require U.S. employers to provide employees with any vacation time, either paid … Continue Reading
Last spring, we reported that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals (which hears appeals from Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin federal trial courts) had become the first federal appellate court to conclude that Title VII’s sex discrimination prohibition also precludes discrimination based on sexual orientation. On February 26, 2018, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling … Continue Reading
During the first month and a half of 2018, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) released a torrent of memoranda authored by its Division of Advice (“Advice”), a section of the NLRB’s Office of the General Counsel. As you may have read on our blog before, Advice memoranda are issued by the NLRB’s … Continue Reading
On January 12, 2018, Maryland became the ninth state to require employers to provide employees with sick leave when lawmakers overrode Governor Larry Hogan’s veto. Barring action by the General Assembly to delay implementation of the law, the “Healthy Working Families Act” will go into effect on February 11, 2018.… Continue Reading
