On August 28, as part of its Fiscal Year 2025 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Final Rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized the Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM)...more
Illinois joined a handful of other states in limiting employers’ ability to conduct “captive audience” meetings when Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law SB3649, commonly known as the Worker Freedom of Speech Act. The Act...more
On July 31, 2024, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed into law Illinois Senate Bill 3649, or the Worker Freedom of Speech Act (WFSA), prohibiting employers from holding mandatory meetings to discuss company views on...more
The U.S. Supreme Court held the Mandatory Repatriation Tax (MRT) constitutional in Moore v. United States, No. 22-800, 602 U.S. _, decided June 20, 2024. The MRT requires some American shareholders of American-controlled...more
The Tribunal confirmed that States party to UNCLOS must take measures to prevent marine pollution caused by climate change, on top of their obligations under the Paris Agreement. On 9 April 2024, the International...more
“The rock and the hard place.” How often do employers find themselves here? If employers have LGBTQ employees in certain states, they are now bumping up against the “rock” of federal laws, like Title VII and Title IX, and the...more
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) recently issued a new Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) that updates CFIUS's interpretation of the "completion date" for a transaction, which represents a...more
The Department of Commerce (Commerce), in partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), announced that it was launching a...more
Recently the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Jennifer Abruzzo, issued GC Memo 22-04, which seeks to bar employers from convening employee meetings on working time to address union representation...more
Recently, the Connecticut General Assembly sent Public Act No. 22-24 (Substitute Senate Bill No. 163), “An Act Protecting Employee Freedom of Speech and Conscience,” to Governor Ned Lamont’s desk for signature. It is unclear...more
I had blogged about this case some months ago and am interested in following it through. Now, a Judge has granted conditional certification to a class of oil and gas industry employees who are seeking pay for their travel...more
The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and The Joint Commission (TJC) have published guidance on survey procedures and enforcement of the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for hospitals and health care facilities after...more
Effective January 1, federal lobbyist registration in Germany is mandatory, whereas, previous registration had been voluntary. Under the new law, lobbying is defined broadly to include direct and indirect attempts to...more
On November 18, 2021, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a joint final rule (the...more
In an effort to keep their employees, customers, clients, and others safe, businesses are considering whether to require their employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Vaccination policies play a crucial role in...more
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recently added vaccination against COVID-19 to its list of required vaccinations for individuals seeking lawful permanent resident status - colloquially known as...more
On September 9, 2021, President Biden released his COVID-19 Action Plan. The plan requires COVID-19 vaccinations for more than 17 million healthcare workers at Medicare and Medicaid participating hospitals and other...more
In recent months, we have reported extensively on the various carrot-and-stick approaches taken by employers to try to incentivize employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine. In recent weeks, we have seen employers frustrated over...more
We received notice last week from a health care client that, as of October, any employee of a vendor that enters their work premises must provide proof of vaccination from the coronavirus. For our firm, this means that...more
A month ago, President Joe Biden issued an executive order mandating COVID-19 vaccinations or frequent testing for federal employees. This order also contained a requirement that employees of federal contractors working at...more
On August 18, 2021, Governor Jay Inslee announced the reinstatement of the indoor mask mandate for all Washingtonians. The mask mandate goes into effect on Monday, August 23, 2021....more
As the number of new cases of the Delta variant of COVID-19 continues to grow nationwide, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced, on August 18, 2021, measures to prioritize patient safety in nursing homes and hospitals....more
As we have previously written, the landscape for employers in the time of COVID-19, particularly healthcare employers and long term care facilities, is ever-changing and quickly moving. In the last year, healthcare employers...more
On August 12, 2021, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and the City of New Orleans Health Department announced updated Guidelines for COVID-19 Reopening, which require individuals to provide proof of “having received at least...more
Federal Minimum Wage Increases to $15 on January 30, 2022 - Federal prime contractors and subcontractors should prepare to pay a higher mandatory minimum wage starting January 30, 2022....more