Employment

Two Massachusetts decisions—including one from the state’s highest court—applied the same standard regarding enforcement of an agreement to arbitrate.  In each case, plaintiffs signed arbitration agreements with another party.

If someone continually, yet anonymously, defecated on the floor of your workplace, you’d probably want to use any and all legal means at your disposal to identify and discipline the perpetrator.  Your methods might include surveillance or perhaps some form of forensic or other testing to link the offensive conduct to a specific individual.

The U.S. Department of Labor recently issued proposed regulations that make sweeping changes to the definition of the term “fiduciary” under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).  To call this proposal controversial is an understatement.

Despite overwhelming judicial disapproval, the NLRB simply will not relent in its view that mandatory arbitration agreements containing class/collective action waivers violate the National Labor Relations Act.

As has been widely reported, President Obama has ordered the US Department of Labor to updated existing federal regulations on overtime in order to account for the changing nature of the workplace and to allow both workers and businesses to better understand and apply the exemptions.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court said that conciliation efforts by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are subject to limited judicial review.

We have been following the high-publicity battle between Uber and Lyft, on the one hand, and the drivers on the other, over whether the drivers are properly classified as independent contractors.  Uber and Lyft argue they are mere technology companies facilitating the connections between drivers and would-be passengers.

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office has issued proposed regulations to the Massachusetts Earned Sick Leave Law, which was approved by voters in November 2014 and goes into effect on July 1, 2015 – less than two months from now.

Mayor de Blasio recently signed a series of bills that, among other things, require the New York City Human Rights Commission – the agency responsible for enforcing the New York City Human Rights Law – to conduct employment discrimination investigations using the paired testing method.  This is the Commission’s version of a sting operation.

In what appears to be a sign of things to come, a federal court in New York recently approved the use of social media to notify potential class members who were more likely to be reached that way rather than by more traditional forms of notice, such as regular mail.

The NLRB last week filed its brief at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the well-publicized Facebook “Like” firing case, Three D, LLC v. NLRB.  Prior to the appeal, we discussed the NLRB’s August 2014 ruling here as part of a broader discussion of the Board’s recent crackdown on employers’ “overbroad” social media policies.

This week, in Greathouse v. JHS Security, Inc., the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that employees may pursue a Fair Labor Standards Act retaliation claim premised upon an oral complaint to their employer – a clear expansion of its earlier interpretation of the law.

On April 16, 2015, the EEOC published proposed regulations setting forth its position on the use of physical examinations under employment-based wellness programs.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently sent a case back to a district court to revisit its enforcement of a settlement agreement that prohibited an employee from future employment with the employer and any company the employer later acquired or served.

A Magistrate Judge in the Northern District of California recently handed down an important decision regarding the application of the Fair Credit Reporting Act to one of LinkedIn’s search products.

The New York City Council passed the Stop Credit Discrimination in Employment Act last Thursday.  It amends the New York City Human Rights Law to prohibit most employers from making employment decisions based on an employee or applicant’s consumer credit history.

First it was the blue and gold dress.  Now, the next viral internet sensation centers on the unlikeliest of events: Cheryl’s birthday.

Last Friday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals sitting en banc held that telecommuting up to four days a week was not a reasonable accommodation under the ADA for a disabled Ford Motor Co. employee.

The New York City Human Rights Law specifically says that an employer’s agent can be held liable for discrimination, but its liability provision doesn't address the circumstances under which that agent may be held liable for the discriminatory actions of the agent’s employee.  A New York Federal Court has now addressed this gap in the law.

We have written previously about the expanding scope of social media activities that the National Labor Relations Act protects and the tight limits the NLRB places on an employer’s ability to discipline employees for work-related communications that take place online.