Employment

Viewpoints

Filter by:

Something is Rotten at the Pork Roll Company ... and it’s not the Pork Rolls: Flatulent Employee (and his Wife) Bring Claims for Disability Discrimination

October 13, 2015 | Blog | By David Katz

Is passing gas now protected by our anti-discrimination laws? Over the past several years, we have written extensively (here, here, here and here) about the possibility of obesity discrimination lawsuits becoming the next wave of disability discrimination litigation, and now we have a new test case in New Jersey, and this time with a unique twist or two.
Read more

A WARNing to Directors and Officers — Failure to give proper WARN Act notice may breach your fiduciary duty

October 9, 2015 | Blog

At first glance, Stanziale v. MILK072011, looks like someone suing over a bad expiration date and conjures up images of Ron Burgundy proclaiming “milk was a bad choice.”
Read more

D.C. Council Introduces Legislation That Would Give D.C. Employees Up to 16 Weeks of Paid Family and Medical Leave

October 8, 2015 | Blog | By Alta Ray

On October 6, 2015, the D.C. Council introduced the Universal Paid Leave Act of 2014.
Read more

California Expands Gender-Based Wage Protections by Adopting “Substantially Similar” Test and Requiring Employers to Justify Wage Discrepancies

October 8, 2015 | Blog | By Jennifer Rubin, Brent Douglas

The California Fair Pay Act, which goes into effect on January 1, 2016, prohibits employers from paying employees less than the rate paid to members of the opposite sex who perform “substantially similar” work.
Read more

Corporate Divorce Series: Disparage-Me-Not

October 7, 2015 | Blog | By Jennifer Rubin

If you have been following my corporate divorce series, you may have read the “Break Up” piece where I advised newly terminated folks to keep their cool if they are unexpectedly fired because their post-firing behavior might impact a severance offer.
Read more

Update on the Fight Over the Companionship and Live-In Domestic Worker FLSA Exemptions: Final Rule Set to Go Into Effect on October 13, 2015

October 6, 2015 | Blog

A U.S. Department of Labor final regulation prohibiting third-party home care agencies and other third-party employers from taking advantage of the Companionship and Live-In Domestic Worker minimum wage and overtime exemptions is set to go into effect on October 13, 2015.
Read more

EU Top Court Invalidates Safe Harbor; Data Transfer Concerns Arise for EU/US Employers; Learn More About this at Tomorrow’s Privacy Webinar

October 6, 2015 | Blog | By Cynthia Larose

The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) has now declared Safe Harbor invalid – in total.
Read more

Student-Athlete Pay Ruling: What does this mean for the NCAA?

October 5, 2015 | Blog

My colleague, Tyrone Thomas was quoted in the Law360 article, Attorneys React to NCAA Student-Athlete Pay Ruling, in which he analyzes the Ninth Circuit Court’s decision to strike down the NCAA’s ban on paying student-athletes and outlines the positive implications of the decision for the NCAA.
Read more

Congress Considers Amending NLRA to Require Direct Control for Joint Employer Findings

October 5, 2015 | Blog | By Erin Horton

On September 29, the House subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions held a legislative hearing to consider the Protecting Local Business Opportunity Act, H.R. 3459.
Read more

The Affordable Care Act’s Reporting Requirements for Carriers and Employers (Part 12 of 24): Deconstructing Form 1095-C, Parts II and III

October 5, 2015 | Blog

This series is devoted principally to the reporting requirements imposed by Internal Revenue Code §§ 6055 and 6056 as added by §§ 1502 and 1514 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), respectively. The former reports offers of minimum essential coverage, which allows taxpayers to demonstrate that they have complied with the law’s individual mandate.
Read more

Why Getting Handbooks Right Matters: NLRB Judge Holds Verizon’s Restrictions on Employee Communications During Non-Working Time Violate the NLRA

October 1, 2015 | Blog | By George Patterson

Despite previous NLRB rulings telling them to stop, some employers continue to impose broad prohibitions on personal employee communications over company email.
Read more

Eleventh Circuit Joins Second Circuit in Holding the Unpaid Intern FLSA Classification Analysis Depends on the “Primary Beneficiary” of the Relationship.

September 30, 2015 | Blog | By Dan Long

The Eleventh Circuit recently joined the Second Circuit in adopting the employer-friendly “primary beneficiary” test to determine whether unpaid interns are properly classified as employees under the FLSA.
Read more

Time Warner-EEOC Settlement Provides a Cautionary Tale to Employers Who Provide Mothers More Parental Leave Than Fathers

September 29, 2015 | Blog | By Alta Ray

I recently read in the NY Times that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission settled a charge with Time Warner, Inc., the parent company of CNN and Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. where a former employee alleged that Time Warner’s parental leave policy discriminated against him as a biological father.
Read more

Internal Whistleblowing Protected Against Retaliation Under Dodd-Frank, Says Second Circuit

September 29, 2015 | Blog | By Brent Douglas

While the Dodd-Frank Act provides various protections to whistleblowers, federal courts have inconsistently interpreted who precisely qualifies as a whistleblower.
Read more

The Affordable Care Act’s Reporting Requirements for Carriers and Employers (Part 11 of 24): Reporting 2015 Coverage of “MV-Lite” Plans on Form 1095-C

September 29, 2015 | Blog

In Notice 2014-69,  the Treasury Department and the IRS clarified that a group health plan that fails to provide substantial coverage for in-patient hospitalization and physician services will not be treated as providing minimum value, despite that the plan might otherwise return a value of 60% from the Department of Health and Human Service’s (HHS)
Read more

The Second Circuit (Sort of) and the Fourth Circuit (Completely) Refuse to Apply “Manager Rule” to Title VII Retaliation Claims

September 25, 2015 | Blog | By Robert Sheridan

The so-called “manager rule” addresses a concern that employers may face a “litigation minefield” if a manager whose very job duties required them to report discrimination complaints could later sue for retaliation if they were adversely affected by the making of that report.
Read more

Maine Social Media Employee Privacy Law Goes Into Effect October 15, 2015

September 22, 2015 | Blog

In a sign of the growing trend of states enacting statutes protecting employee privacy, Maine became the latest state to prohibit employers from requiring employees and job applicants to provide passwords to their personal Facebook and other social media accounts.  Since 2012, nearly half of the states have passed such laws.
Read more

The Affordable Care Act’s Reporting Requirements for Carriers and Employers (Part 10 of 24): IRS Issues Final Form 2015 Instructions for Forms 1094-B and 1095-B, 1094-C and 1095-C—Good News for HRAs, Changes to COBRA Reporting, Clarifications for Mul

September 21, 2015 | Blog

The IRS recently issued final instructions for Forms 1094-B and 1095-B and Forms 1094-C and 1095-C . The 2015 Instructions for Forms 1094-B and 1095-B implement a suggestion we made in a previous post relating to the reporting of Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) that are integrated with other group health plan coverage.
Read more

NJ Appellate Court Offers New Guidance on Employee Arbitration Agreements

September 17, 2015 | Blog | By David Katz

Earlier this month, the New Jersey Appellate Division ruled that employee arbitration agreements, to be enforceable, must contain a “clear and unmistakable” waiver of an employee’s right to a trial in court.
Read more

What questions should executives ask about their D&O insurance following the new DOJ policies?

September 16, 2015 | Blog

My colleague, Heidi Lawson recently wrote a post on Securities Matters that analyzed the implications of the Justice department’s newest initiative to prosecute executives for white collar crimes through evidence turned over by their companies.
Read more

Subscribe

Sign up to receive email updates from Mintz.
Subscribe Now
Coronavirus Blog Button

Coronavirus Insights Center

Employer Roadmap in the Time of 2019 Blog Button

Roadmap for Employers in the Time of COVID-19

AHP Blog Button

Association Health Plan Perspectives

Viewpoint Editors

Explore Other Viewpoints:

I'm Looking For...