In a recent case issued by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico (“the Court”), the Court addressed the standard and level of proof that must be presented by employers when raising as an affirmative defense a corporate reorganization. In Segarra Rivera vs. International Shipping Agency, 2022 T.S.P.R. 33, 208 D.P.R. ____ (Mar.

In the first such decision from a federal appellate court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled the COVID-19 pandemic is not a “natural disaster” that exempts employers from providing advance notice of mass layoffs and plant closures under the WARN Act. The court also opined that the natural-disaster exception requires proof of proximate causation, not but-for causation.¹

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.

On March 13, 2023, Ontario announced that it is proposing two amendments to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) and related regulations.

Employees Who Work Solely from Home to Become Eligible to Receive Enhanced Notice in Context of Mass Termination  

In Pham v.

Compliance with the New York Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (NY WARN) Act just got harder (again). On June 21, 2023, the New York Department of Labor’s amendments to the NY WARN regulations took effect and some of the changes are sweeping.

Employer Coverage

Under the amended regulations, the definition of a covered employer is expanded to count not just employees at a single site of employment in the state, but also employees who work remotely but are “based at the employment site.”

New Notice Content Requirements

On November 25, 2023, O. Reg. 340/23: TERMINATION AND SEVERANCE OF EMPLOYMENT made under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) (Regulation), amending O. Reg.

For In-house Counsel or HR professionals in Asia, what are some key issues to be aware of when implementing a business restructure?

There are some key areas you will want to focus on when restructuring a business operation in the APAC region.

Currently, employees in the UK on statutory maternity, adoption or shared parental leave who are at risk of redundancy have priority rights to be offered a suitable alternative vacancy (but only where such a vacancy exists).

New regulations have been introduced to extend redundancy protections, both before (for pregnant employees only) and after the return to work. These regulations arose in response to research that found that mothers returning from maternity leave still faced discrimination in the workplace after returning from leave.

This Littler Lightbulb highlights some of the more significant employment law developments in the federal courts of appeal in the last month.

Dear Littler,

 We are a professional services company with employees in various states. During the pandemic we shifted to fully remote work. As the pandemic subsided, we still leaned into remote work to attract and retain talent who preferred remote work. We also shifted our focus almost exclusively to digital services that did not require an in-person presence since our clients were also remote. We kept most of our physical offices intact but downsized some square footage to reduce our overhead.

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

Confilegal

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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

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Shannon Meade talks about how the pandemic has upended the labor market, pushing employees to realize the benefits of higher pay and forcing employers to offer better pay and flexibility.

Law360 Employment Authority

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As a result of subcontracting reform, Jorge Sales Boyoli explains that some companies want to distribute profits under conservative criteria and plan to compensate by distributing an additional bonus. 

El Diario Mexico

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Jorge Sales Boyoli weighs in on a reform that was almost passed in Mexico, which “violates the most sacred thing that a worker has: his salary.” 

El Heraldo de Mexico

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Jeanine Conley Daves discusses the fact that women still, in the year 2022, are rarely compensated on par with their male counterparts and suggests solutions for workplace parity.

Philadelphia Business Journal

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Eli Freedberg explains that there are lots of gray areas for employers in a New York City law that requires them to post pay ranges in their job ads.

Bloomberg Law

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Eli Freedberg discusses New York’s controversial new pay transparency law.

Law360 Employment Authority

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Shannon Meade talks about states implementing minimum wage increases, increases in employers’ total compensation packages and the trend in “unretirements.”

HR Dive

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

SHRM Online

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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

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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

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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

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While significant bills impacting Connecticut employers were signed into law, proposed employer mandates on pay transparency, paid sick leave, and predictive scheduling failed to gain the necessary votes for passage in 2023. Here are some of the year’s notable legislative developments.

What Passed . . .

Effective October 1, 2023, unless otherwise noted:

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.

Sara Olabarría explains how courts determine whether stress is the cause of a work accident. 

El País

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On August 8, 2023, the Governor of Puerto Rico signed into law Act No. 85-2023, effective immediately. The statute amends Puerto Rico’s Workers’ Compensation Act by further incentivizing safe workplaces.

Jeff Nowak discusses the problems that negative favoritism in a department can cause if it is not corrected.

SHRM Online

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With 2023 in the rearview mirror, Connecticut employers may want to confirm they have implemented the necessary changes to address legislative developments that became effective January 1, 2024.

Connecticut Minimum Wage

Alex MacDonald explains the key questions in the first test of a National Labor Relations Board ruling that threatens to make employers pay more to workers whose rights they violate.

Law360 Employment Authority

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James A. Paretti Jr. says the DOL’s new overtime rule is likely to face a legal challenge, so employers should start reviewing their workforces but stop short of implementing changes right away.

Law360 Employment Authority

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Stephen T. Melnick discusses the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents (DIA)’s revised workers’ compensation notice for employees, which Massachusetts employers will start using Sept. 16, 2024.

SHRM

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On January 8, 2021, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) issued its final rule modifying the calculation of withdrawal liability by multiemployer pension plans.  This final rule amends the agency’s regulations on allocating unfunded vested benefits to withdrawing employers (29 C.F.R. § 4211) and notice, collection, and redetermination of withdrawal liability (29 C.F.R. § 4219).

Sarah Bryan Fask provides insight on multi-employer pension plans. 

DCReport

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A federal court in New Jersey recently applied the arbitrary and capricious standard of review for a denial of benefits claim despite the enactment of an anti-discretionary statute in Minnesota, which governed the benefit plan policy. Hocheiser v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32154 (D.N.J. Feb. 22, 2021).

Sarah Bryan Fask explains how the special financial assistance will affect union-brokered pensions.

Bloomberg Law

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The Colorado Court of Appeals recently decided an issue of first impression regarding the Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s (ERISA) preemptive power over Colorado’s divorce-revocation statute. The decision in Ragan v. Ragan, 2021 COA 75, settled an open question in Colorado regarding whether ERISA preempts “post-distribution” lawsuits under Colorado’s divorce-revocation statute. Specifically, the court held that ERISA preempts lawsuits against a former spouse to recover plan benefits that were distributed to the former spouse as the named beneficiary.

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.

Anne Sanchez LaWer advises employers to evaluate the extent to which state laws restricting abortion may impact their healthcare plans, privacy practices, leave accommodations, company culture and other employment policies.

SHRM Online

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On Friday, July 8, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued its decision in United Mine Workers of America 1974 Pension Plan v. Energy West Mining Company, joining the Sixth Circuit in holding that the assumptions used by a multiemployer defined benefit pension plan in calculating the amount of withdrawal liability owed by an exiting employer must reflect the actual and projected experience of the plan.

On October 14, 2022, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the federal agency that insures and regulates private-sector defined benefit pension plans under Title IV of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), published a proposed rule governing employer withdrawal liability.

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

This Littler Lightbulb highlights some of the more significant employment law developments at the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts of appeal in the last month.

At the Supreme Court