Employment

Recently, in Hargrove v. Sleepy’s, LLC, the New Jersey Court issued a unanimous decision raising the bar for New Jersey employers seeking to classify individuals as independent contractors under New Jersey’s Wage Payment Law (governing time and mode of wage payments) and New Jersey’s Wage and Hour Law (governing minimum wage and overtime).

So it’s going to snow a lot today and tomorrow. A lot. A potential blizzard. Some say this could be one of the biggest snowstorms ever to hit the East Coast.

On January 14, 2015, Judge Richard J. Leon of the DC Federal District Court issued another favorable opinion for home care employers by vacating a Department of Labor regulation that would have narrowed the definition of “companionship services.”

Those of you reading our Employee Mobility blog posts are familiar with California’s unique approach to non-compete agreements: they are, except in a few limited circumstances, unenforceable in the Golden State.

My colleague Patty Moran authored an article recently published in Bloomberg BNA about the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility rules that took effect this month. According to this mandate, employers of a certain size must either offer coverage to full-time employees or risk paying a penalty.

Last October, we reported on DC’s soon-to-be-enacted DC Wage Theft Prevention Amendment Act.

Welcome to 2015 and the start of California’s Anti-Bullying Training Requirements. Employers of 50 or more in California must now add an “anti-bullying” training requirement to their training curriculum, which is required to be delivered every two years to supervisory personnel regarding harassment, discrimination, and retaliation in the workplace.

My colleagues Jen Rubin and Rich Kelly co-authored an article recently published in Corporate Board Member magazine in which they outline principles and proven techniques to help board members navigate a fast-moving CEO termination.

A federal judge in Arkansas granted summary judgment for ConAgra Foods in a collective action brought by a group of departmental Team Leaders who alleged ConAgra misclassified them as exempt and denied them overtime pay in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In a novel case, a New York federal court judge recently denied an employer’s motion to dismiss a Section 1981 alienage discrimination class action lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company violated that Act by implementing a policy of hiring only US citizens and lawful permanent residents.

My colleague, Tyrone Thomas, was quoted in The Patriot News article entitled Does a Settlement of Remaining Penn State Sanctions Issues Help the NCAA, in which he comments on the NCAA’s enforcement processes as they relate to the child abuse sex scandal at Penn State.

Our sister blog — Privacy and Security Matters — has released its annual update to the Mintz Matrix of State Data Breach Notification Laws, which highlights some significant changes in important states — such as California and Florida. We hope you'll find it useful.

On January 1, 2015, the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) employer shared responsibility mandate took effect. Up until July 1, 2013, most employers doing business in Massachusetts were required to comply with an employer mandate commonly known as the Fair Share law.

We have written before about the EEOC’s increased focus on the potential disparate impact of employers’ use of background checks in screening applicants for employment, and of a recent federal appeals court decision that put up a significant road block in the EEOC’s efforts to prove disparate impact caused by credit checks as a screening tool.

Governor Cuomo has now signed a bill repealing the annual pay notice requirement.  As we reported earlier, the legislature is set to pass a bill in the coming days to make the repeal effective immediately rather than in 60 days, so that employers will not have to worry about distributing notices next month.

In a 3-2 decision divided along party lines, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that employees have a presumptive right to use their employers’ email systems during non-working time to discuss unionization and the terms and conditions of their employment.

The Affordable Care Act is the single most important piece of Federal social legislation in more than a generation.  While there was and is broad agreement on the law’s principal goals—to expand medical coverage, increase the quality of medical outcomes, and constrain costs—there is little agreement on the “means whereby.”

Regulations implementing the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) employer shared responsibility rules including the substantive “pay-or-play” rules and the accompanying reporting rules were adopted in February.  Regulations implementing the reporting rules in newly added Internal Revenue Code Sections 6055 and 6056 came along in March.

For those of you following the saga our Employee Mobility Practice Group has been documenting about the many ways in which social media appears to be impacting the non-compete world, I present to you yet another case that highlights the treasure trove of evidence that LinkedIn may provide.

Just before the Thanksgiving break, as retailers were gearing up for “Black Friday,” “Cyber Monday,” and the newly-minted “Gray Thursday,” the San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors unanimously approved two new ordinances collectively known as the “Retail Workers Bill of Rights” – the first of its kind in the nation.