On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or the “Commission”) voted to finalize a rule abolishing the vast majority of employee noncompetes across the United States (the “Noncompete Rule” or “Rule”). The FTC...more
4/25/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Bans ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
FTC Act ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Trade Secrets
On March 25, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued its annual notice that the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) Contractor Portal, for certification of contractor affirmative action program...more
As we reported at the time, in summer 2023 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a new final rule amending its occupational injury and illness recordkeeping regulation and imposing new electronic...more
According to a March 2023 Pew Research Center article, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, only 7% of employees with jobs that could be done from home actually worked from home.
The article went on to note that 55% of the...more
One of the most common mistakes made by employers is the failure to properly calculate the regular rate when paying overtime compensation to employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The FLSA is a cornerstone of...more
As a reminder, and as we had reported in an earlier Blog Post, Federal Contractors and Subcontractors are asked to certify their compliance with the Affirmative Action Program obligations under Executive Order 11246, VEVRAA,...more
6/21/2023
/ Affirmative Action ,
Audits ,
Certifications ,
Compliance ,
CSALs ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Filing Deadlines ,
OFCCP ,
Rehabilitation Act ,
Subcontractors ,
Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA)
The federal government recently announced the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, and the three-year pandemic finally appears to be in our rearview mirror.
Originally published in Law360 - June 1, 2023....more
6/2/2023
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Reimbursements ,
Remote Working ,
Telecommuting ,
Wage and Hour
In late April 2023, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) advised that a “new” Voluntary Self-ID form for disability has been issued by the Agency. Because the form was approved by the Office of...more
On March 20th, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued its annual notice that the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) Contractor Portal for certification of contractor affirmative action program compliance...more
Recent disruptions in the financial services sector as well as an economic downturn in certain industries, including high tech, may create an immediate and unanticipated liquidity crisis for impacted employers. When faced...more
Notwithstanding the very recent good news that it appears the federal government and regulators currently have control and a plan in place to limit the impact of Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) and Signature Bank’s recent...more
3/14/2023
/ Banking Regulators ,
Banking Sector ,
Breach of Contract ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Layoffs ,
Liquidity ,
Mini-Warn Acts ,
Minimum Salary ,
Personal Liability ,
Separation ,
Severance Agreements ,
WARN Act
On February 21, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) held that an employer violates Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”) when it offers employees severance agreements with certain...more
Since the Biden Administration assumed control in 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) has been increasingly focused on enforcement. That is particularly true when it comes to safety and health in the workplace, as enforced by...more
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a proposed regulation that, if adopted, would essentially abolish employee noncompetes across the United States. A proposed FTC regulation on employee...more
1/9/2023
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Biden Administration ,
Employment Contract ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Proposed Rules ,
Restrictive Covenants
According to the National Safety Council, every year, millions of workers in the U.S. report having been a victim of workplace violence. In 2020, workplace assaults resulted in more than 20,000 workplace injuries...more
As the global economy faces the third year of the pandemic, manufacturers are no longer focused on figuring out when things will return to “normal.” Instead, they are applying lessons learned from the past few years to become...more
7/7/2022
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Audits ,
BPA ,
China ,
Climate Change ,
Compliance ,
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) ,
Copyright ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Customs and Border Protection ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Due Diligence ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Ethics ,
False Advertising ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Greenwashing ,
Human Rights ,
ICFR ,
Internet of Things ,
Investment ,
Liability ,
Machine Learning ,
Manufacturers ,
Mexico ,
Model Contract Clauses ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Patents ,
PFAS ,
Popular ,
Proposed Rules ,
Remote Working ,
Risk Management ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Supply Chain ,
Supply Shortages ,
Sustainability ,
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) ,
Trade Secrets ,
Unions ,
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) ,
Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA)
Inflation is at a 40-year high – reaching 8.6% in May, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) news release earlier this month. The rise of consumer product costs, including food and gasoline, have all contributed to...more
In 2022, automotive suppliers face many of the same issues that have bedeviled the industry throughout 2021, as well as a host of all-new challenges. Unfortunately, as with many aspects of pre-pandemic life, the relative...more
3/17/2022
/ Automotive Industry ,
Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corruption ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Electric Vehicles ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
IMMEX ,
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) ,
Mexico ,
Motor Vehicles ,
National Security ,
NHTSA ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
OEM ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
OMB ,
Supply Chain ,
Supply Shortages ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Vertical Mergers
As the entire country should know by now, on January 13, 2022, the United States Supreme Court issued an Opinion reinstating the stay of enforcement by OSHA of its Emergency Temporary Standard for COVID-19 (ETS). You can...more
The Supreme Court Thursday afternoon released its much-anticipated decisions regarding the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) issued late last year by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the...more
1/14/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Biden v Missouri ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Lack of Authority ,
National Federation of Independent Business v Department of Labor and OSHA ,
OSHA ,
SCOTUS ,
Stays ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
Developments immediately before the holiday break have many employers scrambling as the OSHA ETS has seemingly come back to life. The Sixth Circuit, in a 2-1 decision by a 3-member panel, dissolved the temporary stay...more
On December 7, 2021, the federal district court for the Southern District of Georgia (the Court) issued a preliminary injunction preventing the government from enforcing the vaccine mandate for federal contractors and...more
President Biden is ramping up measures aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19. He announced a series of new actions on September 9, 2021, including a plan to require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their...more
9/29/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Healthcare Workers ,
New Guidance ,
OSHA ,
Privately Held Corporations ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Exemption ,
Service Contract Act ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing
Earlier this evening, the President of the United States announced a series of actions aimed at confronting the COVID-19 pandemic. For one thing, President Biden stated he is signing an Executive Order requiring all...more
Every week, we provide at least two brief articles: typically, one concerns guidance on important labor and employment topics, and the other summarizes a recent or new labor and employment development (whether due to...more