Perspectives on Labor, Employment & OSHA: Counseling

The US Department of Labor has issued much-anticipated final regulations making changes to overtime exemption requirements under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Employers should be aware of several important changes to federal and New York wage and hour laws, effective December 31, 2015 and January 1, 2016.

Employers in New York are bound by a law that requires them to pay workers who report for scheduled shifts at least four hours of pay, even if managers send them home earlier.

Federal contractors are subject to a variety of employment-related laws and regulations as part of the price of doing business with the government.

On March 24, 2015, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) signed into law S.B. 426, the Fair and Open Competition in Governmental Construction Act.

On December 30, 2014, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R), signed Public Law 414 into law, which excludes college athletes from the definition of “public employees” who are entitled to collectively bargain in Michigan.

On December 15, 2014, a divided National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) published its controversial Final Rule on Representation-Case Procedures (the Rule).

In order to prevent employee theft, some employers — particularly in the retail arena — require their employees to undergo security screenings before leaving the employer’s facilities.

On November 25, 2014, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed the controversial “Retail Workers Bill of Rights.”

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently affirmed a decision of the Administrative Review Board of the Department of Labor, which had determined that a company’s disclosure of the identity of an SEC whistleblower.

The D.C. Court of Appeals, the District of Columbia’s highest court, recently vacated and remanded a trial court’s decision granting judgment as a matter of law to the District after the trial court concluded that the Plaintiff had failed to present a prima facie case of retaliation.

In January 2012, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) decided arbitration clauses in employment contracts that require individual arbitration, rather than class-wide or collective actions, violate Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (the NLRA or Act).

A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) administrative law judge (ALJ) found that two employees of a nonprofit youth center engaged in concerted activity when they discussed their workplace concerns via Facebook.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed a lower court’s conclusion that a doctor in a service corporation was actually an employer, and thus could not bring a claim under federal discrimination statutes based upon her termination.

Following a trend, including a recent amendment in New York City reported here, on September 10, 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown (D) signed legislation into law that will require most California employers to provide up to three paid sick days per year for employees.

The California Supreme Court has become the most recent legal body to weigh in on the issue of franchisor liability for franchisee employment actions.

In a landmark ruling for college athletes, US District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) cannot stop players from selling the rights to their names, images, and likenesses to the schools that they attend.

On July 29, 2014, the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board), Richard Griffin, authorized NLRB Regional Directors to file unfair labor practice complaints against McDonald’s as an alleged “joint employer” alongside its local franchisees.

In Lawson, the Court held that employees of a mutual fund, traditionally outside the coverage of Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), are nonetheless protected by its whistleblower provision.

In a relatively narrow ruling that may have far greater practical ramifications than constitutional ones, a unanimous US Supreme Court on Thursday struck down President Obama’s 2012 recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board).

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that two uses of a racially offensive slur, directed against an employee by another employee were not sufficiently severe or pervasive as to change the terms and conditions of employment and thereby constitute unlawful discrimination.

Working conditions of interns have been the focus of a series of unpaid wage actions in New York City and elsewhere.

Following his recent controversial decision that scholarship football athletes at Northwestern University are employees who can unionize.

By a 2-1 vote, a three-member panel of the National Labor Relations Board (the NLRB or Board) ordered a California hospital found to have bargained in bad faith to reimburse the Union for its negotiating expenses and extended the certification year by another 12 month period.

The US District Court for the District of Columbia recently dismissed a former university employee’s claims under the District of Columbia Human Rights Act (the DCHRA) that she was wrongfully discharged for opposing gay marriage.