On January 29, 2021, OSHA issued stronger, more detailed guidance – Protecting Workers: Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace, https://www.osha.gov/coronavirus/safework. President Biden...more
Most people are ready to get back to work and ensure their businesses are back on the road, but the danger to health is still out there. So, the big question is how to do it safely. Some of it may involve going back to the...more
On June 26, 2020, as the Georgia General Assembly was about to adjourn, it passed the Georgia COVID-19 Pandemic Business Safety Act. The Act protects businesses, healthcare providers, healthcare facilities, and other entities...more
On May 1, 2020, OSHA issued an alert with safety tips for restaurant and food and beverage businesses as they provide curbside and takeout service....more
There is mounting pressure to reopen businesses as many, particularly small ones, are struggling to survive under various stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders. President Trump issued his “Opening Up America Again”...more
There currently is no vaccine to prevent Coronavirus (COVID-19). Despite preventive measures by governments and health organizations, the disease is continuing to spread to more people and countries.
Businesses in the U.S....more
3/3/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Best Practices ,
Continuing Legal Education ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Health and Safety ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Infectious Diseases ,
NLRA ,
OSHA ,
Public Health ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Webinars ,
Workplace Safety
Executive Summary: On November 5, 2019, a federal district court in Ohio issued a decision clarifying the law governing whether owners of 73 Papa John’s franchised locations violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by...more
11/11/2019
/ Compensation & Benefits ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Field Operations Manual ,
Food Service Workers ,
Franchises ,
Mileage Reimbursement ,
Papa John's International ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Wage and Hour
Recently, the California Supreme Court invalidated a mandatory arbitration agreement in OTO, LLC v. Kho (August 29, 2019) finding the agreement was both procedurally and substantively unconscionable. The case involved...more
Executive Summary: As summer is now in full swing, we find it timely to distribute our Restaurant Employment Law Compliance Checklist. The following 12 topics create compliance challenges in the restaurant industry –...more
7/8/2019
/ #MeToo ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Ban the Box ,
Child Labor ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Joint Employers ,
Marijuana ,
Minimum Wage ,
Misclassification ,
Over-Time ,
Paid Leave ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Public Accommodation ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Wage and Hour
Employers in the restaurant industry have seen an increasing trend of litigation over reimbursement policies for delivery drivers. ...more
On January 24, 2019, citing a need to protect worker privacy, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a final rule eliminating the requirement that businesses with 250 or more workers electronically...more
The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has announced it will no longer apply the “80/20 rule” to tipped employees, and will no longer require employers to pay the full minimum wage for time spent by a tipped...more
11/13/2018
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Deregulation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Minimum Wage ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
On September 18, 2018, a year after a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Marsh v. J. Alexander’s LLC, 869 F.3d 1108, a larger en banc panel of the court has...more
10/4/2018
/ Appeals ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Dismissals ,
Food Service Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Job Descriptions ,
Minimum Wage ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wages
On July 27, 2018, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a news release stating that it has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to “better protect personally identifiable information or data that...more
8/6/2018
/ Construction Industry ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Collection ,
Electronic Filing ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
OSHA ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Workplace Injury ,
Workplace Safety
On April 23, 2018, employees at a Portland, Oregon location of the fast food restaurant chain Burgerville voted to unionize. After a nearly two-year campaign, the Industrial Workers of the World Portland Chapter...more
On April 2, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro that service advisors at automotive dealerships are exempt from overtime. The exemption at issue involves “any salesman, partsman or...more
4/3/2018
/ Appeals ,
Automotive Industry ,
Car Dealerships ,
Congressional Intent ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Legislative History ,
Navarro v Encino Motorcars ,
Over-Time ,
Reversal ,
Salespersons ,
SCOTUS ,
Service Advisors ,
Statutory Construction Test ,
Wage and Hour
On February 16, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted en banc review of Marsh v. J. Alexander’s LLC, 869 F.3d 1108, creating a new layer of uncertainty for hospitality employers....more
3/16/2018
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
En Banc Review ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Minimum Wage ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits disability discrimination in places of public accommodation, which includes businesses that are open to the public – like shopping malls, restaurants, movie...more
The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) has vacated its decision in Hy-Brand Industrial Contractors, Ltd., (“Hy-Brand”), thereby reinstating the joint employer standard created by the Obama Board in the...more
3/1/2018
/ Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Deregulation ,
Franchises ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Joint Employers ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Staffing Agencies ,
Unions ,
Vacated ,
Wage and Hour
The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) has reversed the controversial joint employer standard created by the Obama Board in the Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc. ("BFI") decision, restoring the...more
On December 5, 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to reverse the Obama Administration’s tip rule prohibiting the distribution of tips to anyone other than the...more
On November 21, 2017, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) extended the date by which employers must electronically report injury and illness data through the Injury Tracking Application (ITA)...more
On September 6, in Marsh v. J. Alexander’s LLC, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to give deference to the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) tip-credit guidance under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The...more
In May 2016, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) promulgated the Record Keeping Modernization Rule (the Rule) which required certain employers to submit injury and illness data electronically and...more
On June 30, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled in Marlow v. The New Food Guy, Inc. d/b/a Relish Catering (Relish) that neither the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) nor a Department of Labor (DOL)...more