We recently wrote about Colorado’s historic law aimed at protecting, among others, employees and employment applicants from harm arising out of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Although Colorado is the first state to pass legislation addressing AI-based discrimination, similar bills have been proposed in at least six other states as well as at … Continue Reading
Employers take note: most of you will need to take significant action to update and/or correct your Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, in the coming weeks due to sunsetting temporary COVID-19 flexibilities relating to physical inspection of employee documents. Failure to take timely action could result in significant monetary and other penalties. The Department of … Continue Reading
State and local legislatures were active throughout 2022 in passing laws and ordinances that will impact employers of all sizes and all industries in 2023. Click HERE for our summary of these laws and related developments, including important developments in California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, and elsewhere! If you haven’t already, you might also want … Continue Reading
On 19 October, Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President and Commissioner for Competition of the European Commission, delivered a speech addressing the EU’s current policy when addressing cartels, potential changes to the Commission’s leniency program and recent dawn-raid efforts. Most notably, Vestager spoke about so-called ‘no-poach’ agreements, whereby companies agree not to recruit each other’s workers and/or … Continue Reading
Currently pending before the Arizona legislature, Senate Bill 1648 would prohibit discrimination in the workplace (and elsewhere) against individuals who have not received or who refuse to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. As proposed, the bill would prohibit any employer from requiring a person to receive or disclose whether they have received a COVID-19 vaccine as … Continue Reading
State legislatures have been busy in 2021 passing new employment-related laws. Here we look at some of the highlights of new laws in Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. Connecticut is the latest state to prohibit discrimination based upon traits historically associated with race, including hair texture, protective hairstyles such as wigs … Continue Reading
In Part One of our year-end State Law Roundup, we covered national minimum wage developments and developments in states at the beginning of the alphabet: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, and Hawaii. In Part Two below, we look at developments in the rest of the states (and localities), from Illinois to Washington D.C. Illinois: Illinois employers … Continue Reading
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Los Angeles, California Mayor Eric Garcetti signed the Right of Recall and Worker Retention Ordinances into law to protect employees in some of the industries hardest hit by the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is considering extending these ordinances to … Continue Reading
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) recently issued a new version of its Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, which is used to verify the employment authorization and identity for all employees in the United States. Although employers may now begin to use the new version, which has a 10/21/2019 version date on the bottom, … Continue Reading
As we previously reported here, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Washington Supreme Court have been wrestling with whether obesity qualifies as a disability under the Washington Law Against Discrimination (“WLAD”). The dispute involves an applicant for a position with a railway company who sued in 2010, alleging that the … Continue Reading
Nicotine products are highly addictive and have been linked to a variety of serious health issues, including lung cancer and other respiratory illnesses. In addition to the numerous health risks associated with nicotine use, there is also a causal connection between employee nicotine use and lower productivity in the workplace, as well as higher healthcare … Continue Reading
The date is rapidly approaching when Colorado will join the growing list of states choosing to “ban the box” on criminal history inquiries by employers.… Continue Reading
On June 5, 2019, Nevada’s governor signed Assembly Bill No. 132, becoming the first state to prohibit pre-employment drug testing for the presence of marijuana (though New York City was the first city to enact such a law, as we discussed in our previous post).… Continue Reading
One of the changes planned as part of the Government’s Good Work Plan is for the “Swedish derogation” within the Agency Worker Regulations 2010 to be abolished from April next year. This is causing concern to a number of our clients who use a high volume of blue collar agency workers. They are estimating that … Continue Reading
Illinois Restricts Use of Artificial Intelligence in Hiring On May 29, 2019, the Illinois Legislature unanimously passed the Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act, which, not surprisingly, addresses how employers use artificial intelligence to analyze job applicant video interviews to determine the applicant’s fitness for the position. Under the new law (assuming it is signed by … Continue Reading
In a recent announcement, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) advised the previous suspension of premium processing for cap-subject H-1B petitions will continue to February 19, 2019 and will be expanded to include additional H-1B petitions. The expansion will take effect on September 11, 2018. However, USCIS will continue premium processing of pending H-1B petitions … Continue Reading
On Friday, January 5, 2018, the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a statement that it will no longer follow its six-factor test in determining whether an individual is a non-employee intern (rather than an employee) under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), and instead will apply a broader analysis commonly referred to as … Continue Reading
Last month, the New York City Council approved legislation that bars employers from asking prospective hires to disclose their past salary. In passing the measure, New York City joins Massachusetts (see our post here), Puerto Rico and the city of Philadelphia in banning the question from job interviews and on applications. (Also see our post here … Continue Reading
As we previously reported to you, pay history has recently become a topic of much discussion among federal, state and municipal legislatures. Many jurisdictions around the country are considering laws that would quell employer inquiries into candidate pay history. The underlying purpose of these laws is to level out the historical pay gap between men … Continue Reading
Can employers ask a prospective employee what they have earned at prior jobs? For most employers, the answer is currently – yes. But, if you are among the large group of employers that do ask about past earnings, take heed. A growing number of states and municipalities and even the federal legislature are considering new … Continue Reading
If you have not heard about the “Ban the Box” movement, it is time to take notice. Ban the box refers to a check box present on many standard job applications, whereby an applicant is asked whether they have any prior criminal history. Plainly speaking, proponents of Ban the Box initiatives are seeking to eliminate … Continue Reading
