As the Supreme Court mulls the Chevron decision, Michael Lotito says whatever the court decides, it’s likely little will change at the ground level of day-to-day enforcement activities.

Law.com

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Alexander MacDonald says overtime exemptions are about to get more expensive as the salary necessary to qualify for the FLSA’s “white collar” exemptions will rise in July and again in January 2025.

The Federalist Society

Robert W. Pritchard comments on the dismissal of a longstanding dispute between Uber and its former drivers.

The Legal Intelligencer

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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

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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

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

The Governor of Nevada recently signed into law Senate Bill 386, which is Nevada’s version of the trending “return to work” or “right to recall” laws being passed in other jurisdictions throughout the country in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  These laws typically require that employees who were laid off due to the pandemic be given priority to be offered their former jobs before external candidates are considered.  Nevada’s law, the Nevada Hospitality and Travel Workers Right to Return Act (“the Act”), does not apply to all businesses, but generally to such businesses that were most a

Over the past few years, cities have started to implement workplace regulation, an area previously reserved to federal and state governments.  The hotel industry, which often is one of the primary drivers of a local economy, has been a particular focus.

In 2019, California adopted several laws that restricted “non-disclosure" provisions in employment-related agreements.  Those laws, passed in the wake of the “me too” movement, limited non-disclosure provisions in settlement agreements for lawsuits and administrative agency charges involving allegations of sexual harassment.¹  They also limited the use of non-disclosure provisions in exchange for a raise or a bonus, or as a co

Isha Malhotra, Trent Sutton and Nancy Zhang offer guidelines for in-house counsel when advising a business on a restructure in APAC.

ACC Docket

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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

Deemed IDEL No Longer Available

On January 10, 2023, Governor Philip D. Murphy signed into law S3162 / A4768, which makes the 2020 amendments to NJ WARN effective 90 days from his signature, irrespective of whether a State of Emergency still exists.

As previously reported, under these amendments:

In late January 2023, the UK Government published a draft Code of Practice on Dismissal and Re-engagement. The trigger for the draft Code was the increased attention on the use of dismissal and re-engagement (also known as “fire and rehire”) by employers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

In Pham v.

Governor Philip D. Murphy recently signed Assembly Bill 4682 / Senate Bill 2389, establishing various employment protections for specific “service employees” during changes of ownership. This bill goes into effect on October 22, 2023—90 days from signing.

Amber Spataro and David Ostern examine New Jersey’s new Assembly Bill 4682, which establishes various employment protections for specific "service employees" during changes of ownership.

SHRM Online

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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.

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.

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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Michael Lotito weighs in on a New York measure that would establish a policy-making council that would set rules on pay, safety and working conditions "as reasonably necessary" to protect worker welfare.

Law360 Employment Authority

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Diana Dickinson and Montgomery Paek write about how employers can protect themselves against employment law class actions and discuss a few issues in Nevada that have sparked significant class action litigation and appellate review.

Clark County Bar Association

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

Bloomberg Law

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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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Jorge Sales Boyoli talks about the outsourcing law came into force last year, who will receive profits and the new challenges that have come with it. 

El Heraldo de México

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Devjani Mishra, Barry Hartstein and Michael Lotito provide insight into the findings of Littler’s Annual Employer Survey and several workplace issues and the fast-changing regulations facing employers. (Subscription required.)

Human Resource Executive

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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

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

CincoDías

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Lee Schreter comments on why raising the overtime salary threshold might not be a good idea with a recession on the way.

Law360 Employment Authority

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Lee Schreter comments on the U.S. Department of Labor’s proposed overtime rule, which is tentatively slated to be released in October, and the Fair Labor Standards Act’s independent contractor rule.

SHRM Online

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Michael Lotito weighs in on the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division’s key proposals and nominations.

Law360 Employment Authority

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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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Teresa Trigueros talks about formulas companies can use to balance wage increases, as long as they do not cross certain insurmountable limits or requirements that are conventionally or legally established.

El Pais

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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.

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

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 March 10, 2021, the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) announced that it will not enforce or otherwise pursue enforcement actions with respect to two recently issued final rules amending the “investment duties” regulation under Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

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).

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.

On Monday, January 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in a case of critical interest to employers offering 401(k) or other defined-contribution retirement plans.  In Hughes v. Northwestern University, Case No. 19-1401, the Court voted unanimously to vacate a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, temporarily reinstating allegations by employees of Northwestern University that the fiduciaries of Northwestern’s retirement plans had violated the duty of prudence required by ERISA.