With Thanksgiving right around the corner, now is the perfect time to reflect on things for which we have to be thankful. In the ever-evolving world of labor and employment law, there have been several significant...more
11/27/2024
/ Chevron Deference ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Government Agencies ,
Minimum Salary ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Unions
By now, everyone has heard about the Texas court putting the kibosh on the new salary exempt thresholds. In other exemption classification news, the United States Supreme Court is set to issue an opinion in early 2025...more
11/20/2024
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Evidentiary Standards ,
Exemptions ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Minimum Salary ,
Misclassification ,
Over-Time ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Wage and Hour
The landscape of employment is undergoing a seismic shift as employers increasingly integrate technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), into workplace practices. AI workplace uses include a variety of...more
The National Labor Relations Board and unions have been busy. The NLRB received 3,286 union election petitions during FY 2024, up 27% since FY 2023 (when the NLRB received 2,593 petitions) and more than double the number of...more
Most employers have gotten the hang of handling FMLA requests: Make sure the employee is eligible; get paperwork from the provider; and monitor the amount of time taken. Whether all supervisors are overjoyed with every...more
We have news on two fronts:
First, the FTC Rule -
As related to the Federal Trade Commission’s nationwide ban on noncompete agreements, the FTC has appealed the federal court injunction in Texas to the federal Fifth...more
10/25/2024
/ Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Federal Bans ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Legislative Agendas ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Regulatory Agenda
What happens if OSHA issues a citation and you do not agree with any or all of it? You have 15 working days from the date you receive the citation to contest in writing the citation, proposed penalty, and/or the abatement...more
Many employers have a false notion that OSHA cannot issue a citation if there is no specific standard violated.
The reality is, however, that OSHA has a catchall/gap filler provision that allows it to cite an employer...more
In recent weeks, the EEOC has filed a number of lawsuits on behalf of individuals, alleging a range of employment claims. Here, we provide a brief overview of those lawsuits and the issues that may be on the EEOC’s mind....more
We often hear, “OSHA can’t cite me because I didn’t employ the injured worker.” Unfortunately, this statement is often untrue.
Under OSHA’s Multi-Employer Doctrine, if you are an employer on a worksite where other...more
Here’s a refresher: Discriminating against a subclass of a sex (e.g., older women or black women) is still discrimination. In McCreight v. AuburnBank, the Eleventh Circuit clarified a few things for the lawyers related to the...more
9/26/2024
/ Age Discrimination ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hostile Environment ,
Retaliation ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Title VII
Most frequently, employers do not hear from OSHA unless they report a workplace injury. When a reported workplace injury does occur, OSHA will perform a walkthrough inspection of the worksite and may ultimately issue a...more
What about those salary thresholds for white-collar employees? Although they have been challenged, they are alive and kicking. Last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed that the Department...more
Did you know that OSHA does not currently have a specific standard covering heat stress hazards? Rather, OSHA uses the General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, to impose requirements...more
9/12/2024
/ Construction Site ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Health and Safety ,
Heat Exposure ,
Labor Reform ,
OSHA ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Workplace Hazards ,
Workplace Safety
OSHA has a time limit on issuing citations. It must issue a citation within six months of the occurrence of any violation. The only exception to this rule is where the employer has concealed the violative condition or misled...more
Following several complaints filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), SpaceX has mounted a constitutional challenge against the structure of the NLRB. Specifically, SpaceX contends that NLRB administrative judges...more
9/5/2024
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Administrative Proceedings ,
Chevron Deference ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Government Agencies ,
Judicial Authority ,
Labor Regulations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
SpaceX ,
Unfair Labor Practices
Although OSHA has the right to conduct private, one-on-one interviews with a company’s non-managerial employees, those same employees have rights too. Those rights include: Keep in mind that an employee’s refusal to cooperate...more
How the FLSA “tip credit” is applied has been pushed and pulled numerous times over the last two decades. In the latest volley, the Fifth Circuit entered an order on August 23, 2024, vacating the Department of Labor’s 2021...more
8/29/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Minimum Wage ,
Rate of Pay ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State and Local Government ,
Tax Credits ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
We all know that OSHA has the right to interview folks as part of an investigation. Whether a company representative and the company attorney can also attend an interview depends on who is being interviewed....more
Yesterday, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas set aside the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) rule banning most noncompete agreements (the Noncompete Rule). As a result, the Noncompete Rule...more
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation last week that will require Illinois employers to inform workers and job seekers about their use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in making employment decisions. The...more
8/15/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Automated Decision Systems (ADS) ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement ,
Governor Pritzker ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Rights ,
Illinois ,
Job Applicants ,
New Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Technology
Since our last post on this topic, pay transparency laws were enacted or became effective in four states, the District of Columbia, and several municipalities. The jurisdictions that require or will soon require some form of...more
The National Labor Relations Board issued yet another Starbucks decision this past week. Again, the Board upheld an administrative law judge’s opinion that Starbucks violated the National Labor Relations Act during a union’s...more
By now, we all know that the FTC proposed a rule that will ban nearly every noncompete agreement and that a number of companies have filed legal challenges to it. This week, a federal judge in Pennsylvania weighed in, denying...more
The top lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is ordering her subordinates to continue to seek injunctions against employers for alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), despite the...more