Employment

While we were in the midst of office holiday parties and end of the year celebrations, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals came down with two precedential decisions for employers to ponder in the New Year.

While Americans everywhere were busy eating turkey and drinking eggnog last November and December, our government was hard at work attending to budget matters.  Tucked among the appropriations were several fairly significant items of interest to employers, employees, providers, administrations, and all manner of benefits aficionados.

New York City just finished off a strong year on the employment law front. The City Council passed laws that banned the box and all but eliminated credit checks.

My colleague Alden Bianchi, was quoted in the Inside Counsel article entitled Delay in Implementing Cadillac Tax Raises Questions on Health Insurance, in which he examines the cause of the delay, its impact on large employers and carriers and the implications the tax holds for Congress if repealed.

By now, many of you have heard about our firm’s Second Annual Employment Law Summit in New York on Thursday, January 28th.  The event features a keynote address by Carmelyn P. Malalis, Commissioner and Chair of the New York City Commission on Human Rights, and it also covers a variety of current employment-related topics.

Happy New Year to all of our readers!!!  This is just a friendly reminder that our Second Annual Workplace Law Summit is quickly approaching.  It will take place on January 28, 2016 in midtown Manhattan.

This post concludes our half-year series of posts focusing on the Affordable Care Act’s reporting requirements. These requirements are challenging in the extreme.

New York City is finishing off a strong year on the employment law front.  Earlier this year, the City Council passed laws that banned the box and all but eliminated credit checks

My colleague, Don Schroeder, was quoted in the Corporate Counsel article, What Employees Can Legally Say on Facebook – And Get Away With, in which he comments about the NLRB’s continued expansion of the meaning of protected concerted activity on social media.

New York City is finishing off a strong year on the employment law front.  Earlier this year, the City Council passed laws that banned the box and all but eliminated credit checks.

Under the Affordable Care Act’s reporting requirements that have been the subject of this series, statements to responsible individuals (a/k/a “employees”)—i.e., Forms 1095-B and 1095-C—must be furnished on or before January 31 of the year following the calendar year of coverage.

The Uber saga continues in O’Connor v. Uber Technologies, Inc. – a closely watched case that will impact the future of the gig economy.  Last time we visited this case, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had declined to review the district court’s class certification decision, which certified a class of thousands of Uber drivers.

The Treasury Department and the IRS this week issued Notice 2015-87 that addresses, among other things, the effect of Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) contributions, cafeteria plan flex credits and opt-out payments on affordability determinations for purposes of assessable payments under Code § 4980H(b).

The EEOC’s Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace recently held the third in a series of public meetings, a two-part panel aimed at understanding the different and evolving nature of harassment in the workplace and potentially new methods for addressing harassment.  The Task Force was created early this year by EEOC Chair Jenny R. Yang.

To prove retaliation a plaintiff must show that he or she suffered an “adverse employment action” – an issue that is often conceded by employers defending against such claims.  However, the Fifth Circuit’s recent decision in Brandon v. The Sage Corp. is a great reminder as to why employers should not overlook this issue.

Massachusetts employers need to take heed that the safe harbor provision in the Earned Sick Time law ends on December 31, 2015.  By the start of the New Year, Massachusetts employers will need to strictly comply with the Sick Time Law or it will not be a very happy New Year.

It took a while, but most employers and their advisors have finally gotten the hang of the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility rules. That is, they understand generally that:

New York has amended its Business Corporation Law (BCL) to make the top ten largest shareholders of a non-publicly traded foreign corporation liable for unpaid wages. The change will go into effect in the middle of next month.

If you’ve been following my corporate divorce series, you are familiar with my view about who owns what at the end of the employment relationship, who pays what to whom, and even how to end the relationship. But I have yet to address the notion of custody and whether my employment-as-marriage metaphor withstands an analogy to the post-employment solicitation of employees.

In a case reminiscent of the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode where Cheryl leaves Larry, forcing their friends to choose post-split allegiances (to Larry’s dismay, Ted Danson, the Funkhousers (Super Dave Osborne and Blossom) and even restauranteur Primo, all chose Cheryl), an employer, upon hearing of co-worker spouses’ impending divorce, felt compelled to choose sides