Last week, Governor JB Pritzker signed into law several bills that significantly amend the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA). As a result of these amendments, Illinois employers should expect an uptick in discrimination cases proceeding through state courts and agencies.

Longer Statute of Limitations Period

Judy Iriye, Kate Pitzak and Chase Parongao discuss Hawaii’s Captive Audience Prohibition Act (SB 2715), which restricts employers from requiring employees to attend employer-sponsored meetings.

SHRM

View (Subscription required)

Philadelphia has imposed significant new recall and retention obligations on hotel, airport hospitality, and event center businesses as they struggle to recover in this uncertain COVID-19 economy.  The new obligations are contained in a legislative package, styled as the Black Workers Matter Economic Recovery Package, which became law in Januar

Just about a year ago, in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic activity in many sectors went from red hot to nearly frozen, seemingly overnight.  The hospitality industry was particularly hard hit, as business and leisure travel evaporated.  Many businesses were forced to lay off workers, and California’s unemployment soared.

The Philadelphia Protection of Displaced Contract Workers Ordinance offers job protections to workers providing security, janitorial, building maintenance, food and beverage, hotel service, or health care services who are employed by service contractors, and are displaced when the service contract is terminated and awarded to another service contractor.¹  A recent amendment to the Ordinance significantly expands its scope to impose obligations on a business that decides to no longer utilize its

California is at it again – adopting a host of new labor and employment laws that will further regulate and complicate business operations in the Golden State.  Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute has been tracking these bills as they worked their way through the legislature and been signed into law by Governor Newsom.  The new California laws are summarized briefly below.  Also, please join us at our annual webinar on October 19, 2022, in wh

Deemed IDEL No Longer Available

Survey of more than 450 employers reveals critical insights on layoffs, hiring practices and more

(March 8, 2023) – Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, has released the results of its latest Employer Pulse Survey Report: 2023 Economic Outlook, based on responses from more than 450 in-house lawyers, C-suite executives and human resources professionals across the United States.

Javier Thibault weighs in on the Spanish parliament’s recent labor reform agreement and its effects on the recovery and the labor market. 

Confilegal

View

As many states are raising the minimum wage for state employees, Shannon Meade explains that minimum wage increases will differ based on where the employees are located.

Law360 Employment Authority

View (Subscription required.)

Lisa (Lee) Schreter weighs in on employers paying employees in cryptocurrencies and the legal questions that may raise.

Bloomberg Law

View (Subscription required.)

Rhonda Levy and George Vassos explain Ontario’s Election Act, under which every employee who is qualified to vote is entitled to three consecutive hours to vote while the polls are open.

Human Resources Director Canada

View (Subscription required.)

Iván López García de la Riva discusses Spain’s plan to raise severance payments in certain situations. 

CincoDías

View

Paul Piccigallo talks about considerations for employers when raising minimum wage in the midst of rising inflation.

SHRM Online

View (Subscription required.)

Melissa Cee and Erin Webber discuss hiring the sixth shareholder at Littler – Noah Garber – since July as part of Littler’s new talent strategy that the firm began developing last year. 

The Recorder

View (Subscription required.)

Sebastian Chilco and Wendy Buckingham discuss a new San Francisco law that aims to increase income and employment security for private-sector employees when they perform military service.

SHRM Online

View (Subscription required.)

The state of epidemic emergency in Poland will be lifted on July 1, 2023, and Paweł Sych explains how this will affect workers and employers.

interia biznes

View

The First Special Session of the 131^st Maine Legislature included debate about more than 2,000 bills. Many that were adopted will impact employers in the Pine Tree State. Below is a brief summary of important employment law changes enacted this session. 

An Act to Create the Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave Benefits Program

The budget signed by Maine Governor Janet Mills on July 11, 2023, included funding for one of the broadest and most generous paid family and medical leave programs in the country.

House Education and Labor Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA) recently introduced legislation that seeks to provide aid to multiemployer pension plans (MEPs) facing insolvency. Entitled the Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act (EPPRA), the bill would fund this aid directly from the U.S. Treasury.

Sarah Bryan Fask shares her insight about the future of pension plans for unionized employees.

Bloomberg Law

View Article (Subscription required.) 

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the Second Circuit’s decision in Laurent v. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, which held that retirees could receive money damages in the form of recalculated benefits in a class action over how the company’s cash balance pension plan calculated lump-sum benefits.

Sarah Bryan Fask talks about the federal government’s temporary rescue of more than 200 union-brokered pension plans.

Bloomberg Law

View (Subscription required.)

Lawsuits against employers offering retirement benefit plans have been on the rise.  Recent suits, discussed in this update, have provided some guidance for employers. 

A recent federal appeals court case clarifies that, under ERISA, the regulations governing disability plans’ claims review procedures apply to claims that predate the 2018 changes to the regulations. The decision also serves as a reminder for plan administrators to review their claims review procedures to ensure compliance with the current requirements for a “full and fair review” benefits appeal process.

The Claims Review Regulations

Golf is one of the most significant informal business networks and approximately half of all women feel like their exclusion from these gateways is among the key challenges to reaching the highest echelons of corporate leadership. As a prelude to the 2022 edition of the “Masters Season,” Littler Principal Cindy-Ann Thomas explores how enduring barriers in recreational golf impact meaningful access and equity gains for women in corporate America.

Jasper Hoffstedde and Eric van Dam of Littler’s Amsterdam office discuss non-compete clauses in Dutch employment agreements. A non-compete clause may be agreed upon in writing in indefinite-term employment agreements with a person of age (18+). For fixed-term employment agreements, additional conditions apply. Such conditions are strict, which more often than not lead to invalidity or voidability of the clause.

Jasper Hoffstedde and Fleur van Lieshout of Littler’s Amsterdam office discuss the termination clause in Dutch employment agreements. The termination clause seems an easy and straightforward clause; you simply invoke the clause and terminate employment, right? For the employee that is indeed in the case, but the employer has another hoop to jump through if the employee doesn’t want to agree to termination. He then has the obligation to substantiate the reason for termination, the so-called valid ground.

Tomasz Rogala and Marcin Sanetra, Littler | PCS attorneys, and Lavanga Wijekoon discuss the legal assistance Littler’s Poland attorneys have given Ukrainians fleeing the recent conflict there.

Littler attorneys provide pro bono services in a variety of areas, depending on the interests of individual attorneys. The firm values and encourages the community-minded and pro bono efforts of our lawyers and staff.
  

New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill on September 4, 2024 that requires retail employers to develop and implement workplace violence prevention training and policies, among other measures.  The law becomes effective 180 days after her signature, or March 3, 2025.

In June 2023, the Georgia Court of Appeals held in North American Senior Benefits, LLC v. Wimmer that an employee non-solicitation covenant must contain an express geographic limitation to be enforceable.

Last fall, California enacted Senate Bill 525, which substantially raises the base minimum wage for health care workers over time to $25 per hour.  The first incremental increase above the general state minimum wage was scheduled to occur on June 1, 2024.  However, there were several delays and amendments to the law due to its impact on the California budget.  After the last delay in late June, health care employers did not have a clear answer t

The Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) Office of Labor Standards (COLS) recently posted updates to its website regarding minimum wage obligations, paid leave and paid sick and safe leave, new fair work week thresholds, and updated required labor notices. The compliance deadline for these obligations is July 1, 2024.

Effective June 19, 2024, New York employers will be required to provide up to 30 minutes of paid lactation breaks to employees each time an employee has a reasonable need to express breast milk at work. This change to New York Labor Law Section 206-c is set forth in Bill No. A08806C, part of the New York State budget bill, which Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law on April 19, 2024. Specifically, amended Section 206-c provides:

Jeff Nowak says it is better for companies to add flexibility to employees’ existing leave, rather than create standalone categories and risk creating an atmosphere of exclusion for some employees with different life situations.

SHRM Online

View (Subscription required.)

Jeff Nowak says it may be better for companies to add flexibility to existing leave of absence and disability accommodations for employees, rather than create standalone categories.

SHRM

View (Subscription required)

UPDATE: On August 21, 2024, the Attorney General and State of Michigan asked the Michigan Supreme Court to clarify – no later than September 15, 2024 – various rulings in its July 31, 2024 decision, e.g.: 1) How the state should calculate CPI adjustments for the preset minimum wage rates in 2025 through 2028; 2) Whether, aside from in 2025, future minimum wage rates will take effect on February 21 or January 1; and 3) Whether the court intended to have the minimum cash wage increase from 80% (2028) to 100% (2029) rather than 80% (2028), 90%

On July 26, 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. On the recent 34th anniversary of the ADA, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) General Counsel Karla Gilbride and U.S.

Bradford Kelley discusses the importance of employers reviewing their leave of absence policies to ensure compliance with the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.

Law360 

View (Subscription required)

Bradford J. Kelley and Sean O'Brien discuss how, on the 34th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Justice Department emphasize their commitment to ensuring that emerging technologies and AI comply with ADA standards.

Westlaw Today

View (Subscription required.)

On September 24, 2024, the U.S.