During the Navigator’s holiday break, many commentators wrote about what the new year is likely to bring for employers and employees. The Washington Post identified social policy, technology and diversity as the three issues employers should be considering in 2017. SHRM predicted federal deregulation and increased state regulation in the employment law arena, particularly involving these seven issues: the DOL fiduciary rule, CEO pay, the Affordable Care Act, parental leave, the overtime rule, and predictable scheduling rules. HR Dive rounded up its HR predictions for 2017, and Forbes offered ten workplace trends for 2017. Legaltech News urged private employers to prepare for privacy and data security challenges in the coming year, and Fast Company predicted five workplace trends.

• A federal jury awarded $250,000 in damages in a case brought by the EEOC on behalf of a former Costco employee who alleged she was harassed and stalked by a Costco customer.
• The EEOC filed its first North Dakota suit charging that an employer subjected a male employee to sexual harassment because of his sexual orientation.
• A federal judge in Texas issued an injunction preventing enforcement of Affordable Care Act protections for transgender and abortion-related healthcare services, just one day before they were to take effect.
• The Minneapolis Star Tribune examined why Twin Cities employers struggle to retain employees from diverse backgrounds.

• Fitness trackers and other wearables are on the rise in American workplaces.
• An Taiwanese manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone plans to replace nearly all of the human workers in its Chinese factories with robots.
• France passed a “right to disconnect” law giving French workers the legal right to ignore work emails when they’re off the clock.

• HR Dive rounded up California’s workplace laws taking effect in 2017.
• Current and former employees of a Washington D.C. Whole Foods store filed a class action lawsuit in federal court alleging that the company failed to pay earned bonuses.
• Attn compared the difference between today’s work life and thirty years ago.
• Fast Company covered how paid parental leave evolved in 2016.
• Harvard Business Review offered strategies to improve workforce talent.
• Research shows that referral recruiting often leads to a less diverse workforce.