Brad Kelley says the more states feel compelled to pass their own AI laws in the absence of national legislation, the harder it becomes for businesses, who will have to comply with 50 different laws.

American City Business Journals

View (Subscription required)

Niloy Ray discusses findings in Littler’s AI C-Suite Survey Report that reveal an awareness gap between legal chiefs and HR regarding whether their company is using AI tools.

Bloomberg Law 

View (Subscription required)

Dionysia Johnson-Massie, Kelly Peña and Alan Persaud review the latest updates to Florida’s “Stop WOKE” Act and what they mean for employers in the state.

Westlaw Today

View (Subscription required)

Kelly Cardin examines NYC's proposed pay transparency legislation and what employers can do to navigate applicants' and employees' shifting expectations that have arisen as a result of salary disclosure laws and their requirements.

Law360

View (Subscription required)

Taylor N. Brailey and Nancy N. Delogu discuss a new Pittsburgh ordinance prohibiting employment discrimination against an individual’s status as a medical marijuana patient.

SHRM

View (Subscription required)

In February 2019, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (“Development Ministry”) introduced a draft law (the “Draft Law”) that seeks to mandate human rights due diligence for German companies and their global business partners, including suppliers.

Human rights issues increasingly require the assistance of experienced counsel who can help employers navigate very fluid and complex legal, business and societal considerations.

Since it was established in 2014, a United Nations Inter-Governmental Working Group (“IGWG”) has met annually to develop a multilateral treaty to attempt to hold businesses legally accountable for harms that may be related to their global operations (the “Proposed Treaty”).  Littler Mendelson attorneys have provided testimony at all of these sessions.¹ The IGWG held its most recent session from October 14-18, 2019, during which certain member States of the United Nations (“States”) and other stakeholders discussed a “Revised Draft” of the Proposed Treaty.² This Revise

Mickey Chichester and Jan-Ove Becker write about the EU’s proposal to regulate the use of AI in employment decisions, including selecting, terminating and evaluating employees.

World at Work

View

Stefan Marculewicz weighs in on the possibility of the US government implementing supply chain restrictions amid claims of forced labor in Xinjiang, despite the opposition of the business world. 

Global Times

View 

Rhonda Levy and Douglas Sanderson discuss a recent court decision in Canada that sheds light on how best to deal with accommodation requests.

Human Resources Director Canada

View (Subscription required.)

In January 2022, the New York State Senate introduced a bill that seeks to impose significant human rights and environmental due diligence and disclosure obligations on fashion retail sellers and manufacturers operating in the state of New York.  As we reported previously, 2021 saw a number of international and regional legislative efforts to impose human rights due diligence and disclosure obligations on multinational employers.

Rhonda B. Levy and George Vassos write about a case in which a Canadian judge finally ruled on whether or not COVID laws are in breach of human rights.

Human Resources Director Canada

View (Subscription required.)

George Vassos says arbitrators have largely favored employers’ vaccination policies, but employers don’t have carte blanche. 

Benefits Canada

View 

National and supranational legislatures continue to develop laws requiring employers to conduct due diligence of their operations and those of their business partners in order to address human rights risks such as forced labor and child labor.  Recently, the European Union (EU), Switzerland, and Japan have rolled out such laws, described below:

EU’s Corporate Due Diligence and Corporate Accountability Directive

Rhonda B. Levy and Douglas Sanderson examine The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario preliminary hearing to determine whether allegations made under the Human Rights Code fell within the exclusive jurisdiction of a labour arbitrator, or whether the Tribunal had concurrent jurisdiction over employment-related human rights matters in a unionized workplace. 

Human Resources Director Canada

Are employers required to conduct human rights due diligence in their global operations?

The scope and scale of many employers’ global operations and their global supply chains are expanding. This expansion has led to a greater focus on the risk of corporate human rights abuses such as forced labor, child labor, and other forms of modern slavery.

Lavanga V. Wijekoon and Emily Linn examine a new Illinois law (SB 1782) that enhances restrictions on the employment of minors and imposes certain new civil and criminal penalties on violating employers.

SHRM

View (Subscription required)

Zev Eigen considers artificial intelligence and predictive coding to be tools in making better informed hiring decisions. 

Corporate Counsel

View Article

During a presentation at the 2017 SHRM Employment Law and Legislative Conference, Marko Mrkonich, Zev Eigen and Corinn Jackson discussed the risks employers face when using data analytics.

HR Daily Advisor

View Article

Zev Eigen and Marko Mrkonich explore the benefits and potential risks of using data analytics to augment HR decision-making processes.

SHRM Online

View Article

The Littler Pay Equity Assessment™ Provides Enhanced Data Analytics to Help Employers Assess Risk and Proactively Identify Solutions

Aaron Crews and Michael McGuire answer questions about cybersecurity, eDiscovery and other data topics.

The Cybersecurity Law Report

View Article 

Aaron Crews suggests how data could change business law.

Law.com

View Article

Aaron Crews is quoted regarding technology’s role in HR. 

HR Dive

View Article 

Report Explores the Myriad Issues Related to Technology-Induced Displacement of Employees (TIDE)

Aaron Crews authored this article on how planning can help HR leverage big data and analytics to improve hiring, training and retention.

HR Technologist

View Article

Aaron Crews and Marko Mrkonich co-authored this article that breaks down big data and explains how it can be used in the workplace.

TLNT

View Article 

Aaron Crews discusses how employers are using data to move diversity and inclusion programs forward.

Human Resource Executive

View Article 

Philip Gordon suggests steps that employers should take in response to the privacy act.

SHRM Online

View Article 

In an age where computer generated imagery (CGI) and digital effects enable entire film genres to exist, like Marvel’s superhero series the Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy, audiences have no expectation that movies they consume depict actual events or reflect reality. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the context and forum of how digital media and information is communicated, observed and consumed informs our default expectations of it.

In this podcast, Aaron Crews, Littler’s Chief Data Analytics Officer, Natalie Pierce, co-chair of Littler’s Robotics, AI and Automation Practice Group and Diversity and Inclusion Council and Garry Mathiason, co-chair of Littler’s Robotics, AI and Automation Practice Group discuss what impact AI and automation will have on employers in the future.
 

Welcome to our new bi-monthly series, where we compare employment law and practice from an international perspective, drawing on the experience of local and international employment lawyers who deal with these issues every day.

The first article in our series compares the new UK Government’s proposed changes to unfair dismissal protection with the law in Germany to see if there are any lessons that can be learned for UK employers from Continental Europe.

What’s to come in the UK?

How should an employer respond when an employee is accused, charged, or convicted of a crime?

Fortunately, this is not a day-to-day issue that HR teams tend to deal with, but when it does arise, it can raise complex employment law issues and employers may have a PR crisis on their hands.

On August 29, 2018, Delaware Governor John Carney signed into law a bill (HB 360) addressing sexual harassment in the workplace. The new law broadly defines, and prohibits, sexual harassment and retaliation. The statute obligates employers (with 4 or more employees) to issue an information sheet on sexual harassment. It also requires larger employers (with 50 or more employees) to provide sexual harassment training for all employees and supervisors, making Delaware the fifth state to statutorily mandate sexual harassment training.

Barry Kuretzky discusses a recent Ontario Superior Court decision that punished an employer for trying to intimidate an employee through what the judge determined was a meritless counter claim.

Human Resources Director Canada

View (Subscription required.)