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)

James McGehee explains how AI is poised to influence laws governing equal employment opportunities, wage and hours standards, union organization and other labor and employment issues. 

Dallas Bar Association Headnotes

View

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)

Karolina Kanclerz and Zuzanna Janelli discuss the trend of young female professionals, including young female lawyers, undervaluing themselves by refusing to publicly acknowledge their professional achievements.

International Employment Lawyer

View (Subscription required)

Renata Neeser says Brazil’s efforts to reduce the gender pay gap are in line with the current global trend and ahead of other Latin American countries.

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.

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

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.

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

The Texas legislature meets only for approximately six months every other year. This session, many bills signed into law impact employers. This article summarizes some of these new laws and how they impact employment operations in the State of Texas.

State Preemption of Conflicting Local Laws (AKA the “Death Star Law”)

Lavanga Wijekoon and Aki Tanaka explore the significant impact of the European Union’s expected Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) on global corporate responsibility, with a specific focus on its implications for Japanese companies.

Institute for Security and Development Policy

View

On March 15, 2024, the EU member states voted in favor of the European Supply Chain Directive (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive – CSDDD) in the EU Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) after a long back-and-forth. The vote, originally scheduled for February 9, 2024, had been initially canceled and postponed indefinitely. The reason for this was that numerous member states – including Germany – had already announced their abstention from the vote in advance. The final version of the directive is less burdensome for companies compared to the previous draft.

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.

On Wednesday, April 24, 2024, the EU member states in the EU Parliament voted in favor of the European Supply Chain Directive (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive – CSDDD). This is one of the final steps in a long legislative process. The vote had been delayed several times at the beginning of the year because some EU member states—including Germany—had announced that they would vote against the directive. The planned liability regime of the directive was a particular point of contention.

Content and scope

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

Zev Eigen discusses how employers can utilize Big Data to help close the gender wage gap in their organizations.

SHRM Online

View Article

Zev Eigen comments on the increasing importance and role of data analytics in the legal industry.

Financial Post

View Article

Zev Eigen recommends that organizations regularly analyze data and policies to avoid compensation gaps between men and women.

Information Management

View Article  (Subscription required)

Zev Eigen authored an article covering the data science revolution in HR, as well as tools readily available to employers.

The Lawyer's Daily

View Article 

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

The Cybersecurity Law Report

View Article 

The Massachusetts Attorney General has recently published an Overview and Frequently Asked Questions (the “Overview”) regarding the amendment to the Massachusetts Equal Pay Act, set to take effect on July 1, 2018.  The Overview answers many questions that employers have been asking about this wide-ranging new law.  The Overview also confirms the importance of an employer self-evaluation, offering some direction on what types of evaluations are appropriate, and explaining how it could protect a company from liability under the law.

The New Equal Pay Act

Lee Schreter discusses the impact of artificial intelligence and data analytics on the practice of law. 

Georgia State News

View Article 

Employers are feeling some regulatory relief following a year that brought several changes to workplace policy, but are also grappling with the uncertainty these shifts have created. Sweeping regulatory changes have left them to redesign policies and strategies that had only recently been updated, while simultaneously navigating a growing patchwork of employment laws as states and localities work to fill perceived policy vacuums at the federal level.

Seventh annual survey of more than 1,100 employers reveals how companies are responding to rapid social and political changes

Bloomberg Law’s^® Daily Labor Report^® news team at the Littler Executive Employer^® Conference interviewed panelists about a broad spectrum of employment and labor topics addressing significant developments, emerging trends and challenges facing in-house counsel, employee relations professionals and human resources executives.

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 

Scott Rechtschaffen shares the thought process behind Littler's KnowledgeDesk, a system through which the firm's attorneys ask a question and human researchers find the answer.

Law360

View Article 

Scott Rechtschaffen authored this article on the future of knowledge management in law firms.

CIO Review

View Article 

In this podcast, Aaron Crews, Littler’s Chief Data Analytics Officer, discusses potential uses for AI in supporting HR decisionmaking with Athena Karp, the CEO and cofounder of HiredScore. They explore ways that technology – such as explainable algorithms – can serve employers by improving the effectiveness and transparency of processes for companies and other stakeholders, including candidates. They also address how organizations can structure, validate and verify their data and data training to prevent bias from sneaking into AI-driven analysis.
 

Employers’ compliance challenges have swelled on multiple fronts over the past year as HR and business leaders grapple with an increasingly complex regulatory landscape. With changes under the Trump administration proving slow to materialize, most employers continue to anticipate robust enforcement by the Department of Labor and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in particular.

Scott Rechtschaffen suggests law firms interested in building and selling technology products should become more nimble. 

ABA Journal

View Article 

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

SHRM Online

View Article