Employment

What do fashion designer Norma Kamali, journalist Charlie Rose, Elite Model Management Corporation, and the Hearst Corporation have in common?  All have been sued by former unpaid interns, claiming that their unpaid status violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The Affordable Care Act’s employer-shared responsibility rules will require large employers (50 or more full-time and full-time equivalent employees) to make an offer of minimum essential coverage to at least 95% of their full-time employees or pay a non-deductible excise tax on all their full-time employees.

As expected, the New York City Council has passed the Earned Sick Time Act, which, if enacted, will require most City employers to provide job-protected sick leave, whether paid or unpaid, to the more than 1.6 million employees who currently do not receive this benefit.

The IRS announced it is nearing completion of a five year long compliance project involving tax-exempt colleges and universities. The project, which began with questionnaires to 400 randomly-selected institutions, focused on reporting of executive compensation and unrelated business income.

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “Act”), the federal government, state governments, insurers, employers, and individuals all share responsibility to make affordable health insurance coverage widely available.

A recent Massachusetts court decision upheld efforts by staffing companies and workers compensation insurers to close a loophole that allowed staffing-firm employees injured at a client company both to collect workers compensation benefits and to sue the company where they were hurt.

Recently, the EEOC filed a lawsuit against Hire Dynamics, a staffing firm (click here for the EEOC press release).  According to the complaint, after a Hire Dynamics employee filed a charge of discrimination against one of its clients, the staffing firm retaliated by failing to give the employee any further job assignments or opportunities.

Does a “make whole” offer of judgment to the lead plaintiff in a wage and hour collective action put an end to the case?  According to the US Supreme Court, the answer is “yes”- at least on the specific facts of the case before it.

A significant recent Seventh Circuit decision, written by noted Judge Richard Posner, affirmed decertification of an FLSA collective action, essentially on the ground that the collective action could not satisfy the predominance standard under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(3).  You read that correctly.

Rutgers University announced its termination of the employment of men’s basketball coach Mike Rice. The firing occurred after a media frenzy from the release of video of practices in which Mr. Rice was observed shoving players, throwing balls at them, and using gay slurs.

In October 2012, we told you about the case of Eagle v. Edcomm, Inc. pertaining to whether an employee’s LinkedIn account belongs to the employee (Linda Eagle) or to her employer (Edcomm).

As we predicted in an earlier blog post, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has vetoed legislation aimed at prohibiting discrimination against New York City’s unemployed.

February 6, 2013 was the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Family and Medical Leave Act. In celebration, the United States Department of Labor released the results of a survey on the law’s use and impact.

New York City employers beware: The New York City Council has once again acted to expand the nation’s broadest anti-discrimination law – this time to prohibit discrimination against New York City’s unemployed.

On January 4 and 14, we blogged about the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012’s (ATRA) increases in the pre-tax contribution that commuters may make towards van pools as well as transit passes.

Employment lawyers anticipate that employers’ social media policies and their use of independent contractors will be hot button issues in the New Year, much like they were in 2012.

On January 4, we blogged about the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012’s (the “Act”) increases in the pre-tax contribution that commuters may make towards van pools as well as transit passes. On January 11, 2013, the IRS released Revenue Procedure 2013-15, which clarifies that the 2013 limit for van pools and transit passes is $245, effective January 1, 2013.

On Tuesday, January 8, 2013, the Patrick administration proposed legislation that will repeal the Massachusetts Fair Share Law effective June 30, 2013. In effect since 2006, the Fair Share Law requires companies with Massachusetts employees to either provide compliant medical coverage to full time employees, or pay a penalty of $295 per year per employee.

Christmas came a few days early for Iowan employers, when the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that a male employer acted legally when he fired a female employee because he had become irresistibly attracted to her – a situation the employer’s wife, also an employee, found objectionable.

The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (the “Act”), signed on January 3, increases the pre-tax contribution that commuters may make towards van pools as well as transit passes. The IRS allows employees to pay for parking, transit pass (e.g. for subway, bus or ferry), and commuter highway vehicle (generally, vanpool) expenses on a pre-tax basis, up to a monthly limit.