On Friday March 12, 2021, Governor Cuomo signed into law legislation which requires that beginning March 12, 2021, all New York employers must provide up to four hours of paid leave per COVID-19 vaccine injection. Below are...more
While many states have legalized medical and recreational marijuana, marijuana remains an illegal controlled substance under federal law. As we have previously discussed, this has created a conundrum of sorts for employers...more
Lawsuits and Laws In Vogue: What To Keep an Eye On in 2021 -
Emerging vaccines bring hope during the ongoing pandemic, but there’s little relief in sight for the upward trend in COVID-19-related lawsuits. Adding to that,...more
1/14/2021
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Labor Regulations ,
Occupational Exposure ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Remote Working ,
Retaliation ,
Webinars ,
Whistleblowers ,
Workplace Illness and Injury Reporting ,
Workplace Safety
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in on January 20, 2021, signaling the official change in administration. Employers can certainly expect to see a shift in the direction...more
On the heels of the FDA’s approval of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, the EEOC updated its Technical Assistance Q & A to help employers navigate the latest pandemic related challenges. ...more
12/24/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Title VII ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
As employers are well aware by now, New York enacted statewide paid sick leave requirements for employers, which took effect on September 30, 2020. We provided an overview of requirements for the new law here. Under the law,...more
The EEOC again updated its Technical Assistance Questions and Answers (Q&A), which we have been following closely, and previously covered on June 11, 2020.
In its most recent update, the EEOC addressed specific questions...more
On Tuesday July 21, 2020, Kelley Drye’s Labor and Employment Practice hosted a webinar focused on best practices for navigating challenges of the “not so normal” workplace of 2020. A workplace where employers are challenged...more
As New York employers struggle to reopen their workplaces, implement new workplace COVID-19 policies, manage remote workers, and deal with employees who are quarantined, afraid of contracting COVID-19, afraid of the subway,...more
In a long awaited landmark ruling by Justice M. Gorsuch, the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII protects gay and transgender workers. The Opinion provides...more
6/17/2020
/ Altitude Express Inc v Zarda ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
EEOC v RG & GR Harris Funeral Homes ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gender Identity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
As businesses all over the country prepare to open up and welcome employees back to work – even while the pandemic rages on – there remains a high degree of uncertainty concerning how to keep employees safe, especially those...more
Last week, the US Supreme Court made it easier for a federal worker to establish a claim for age bias.
This decision does not impact private employers, because it relied on the specific language of the federal sector...more
4/15/2020
/ ADEA ,
Age Discrimination ,
Babb v Wilkie ,
Burden of Proof ,
But For Causation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Employees ,
Hiring & Firing ,
McDonnell Douglas Formula ,
Remedies ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Standard of Care ,
Summary Judgment
Amidst the COVID-19 melee, the New York legislature passed its Budget for Fiscal Year 2021, which included a mandatory paid sick leave bill, signed by Governor Cuomo on April 3, 2020....more
On March 26, 2020, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) published the Poster covered employers must post to satisfy the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) notice requirement....more
As federal, state and local governments continue to develop their responses to the COVID-19 outbreak, employers may find themselves in uncharted territory as to how to deal with emerging employee issues....more
3/11/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Best Practices ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Health and Safety ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Public Health ,
Risk Management ,
Traveling Employee ,
Workplace Safety
A Los Angeles jury awarded a black former UCLA phlebotomist nearly $1.6 million in damages for being subjected to racial harassment by co-workers. Birden v. The Regents of the University of California, No. BC6681389 (Los...more
In a decision that could have wide-ranging implications for all employers, the Fourth Circuit recently held that an employer’s failure to stop a false rumor that a female employee slept with her male boss to obtain a...more
As we enter the 3rd year of the #MeToo movement, all signs point towards another year of heightened legal activities in the area of gender discrimination and gender equality. Sexual harassment claims will continue to garner...more
As we close the books on 2018, New York employers really cannot relax after the bombardment of last year’s employment law changes. Many of these laws will require new levels of compliance in 2019, not to mention the new laws...more
1/7/2019
/ #MeToo ,
Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Workweek ,
Lactation Accommodation ,
Over-Time ,
Paid Family Leave Law ,
Paid Leave ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Sick Leave ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
While most of us rarely think about rubella – a largely forgotten disease that should have disappeared with the “MMR” vaccine – it was the focus of a recent Eighth Circuit decision this month. If you are asking yourself how...more
New York City employers were given some clarity this week regarding their obligations under the City’s Stop Sexual Harassment Act, as the New York City Commission on Human Rights released new FAQs about the law. These FAQs...more
This is not the first time you’ve heard from us about flu shots in the workplace. And here we are again. Each flu season, employers find themselves in the hot seat when well-intentioned attempts to implement a policy...more
Last week, the EEOC released preliminary data on sexual harassment claims for its 2018 fiscal year. The report (not surprisingly) shows an eye-popping rise in sexual harassment claims and enforcement activity – a trend acting...more
In August, the EEOC filed suit against Hackensack Meridian Health (“Hackensack”), a New Jersey healthcare network, alleging an employee was harassed due to religion. According to the complaint, Hackensack hired Jojy Cheriyan...more
On Friday, July 27, after a 3 week trial in Manhattan, a jury awarded $1.25 million in damages to Enrichetta Ravina, a former professor at Columbia University Business School, who claimed that she was denied tenure and forced...more