Few governmental agencies can require private employers to permit their employees to say things on the job, in the presence of customers and co-workers, that employers don’t like. But the National Labor Relations Board can....more
Five Ward and Smith attorneys offered timely updates on religious accommodations, professional licensing, pregnancy laws, remote work, and independent contractor rules during the firm’s recent annual Employment Law...more
10/27/2023
/ Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Reform ,
Licensing Rules ,
Pregnancy ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (“PUMP Act”) ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Remote Working
The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace -
Computers are nothing short of marvelous, if not yet conscious. They represent the apogee of modern life, and perhaps more specifically, modern American life: the quest...more
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion issued yesterday in Groff vs. Dejoy, changed the standard that most employers must consider and apply when deciding how to deal with – and when they may lawfully reject –...more
The National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") has recently declared a limit on parties' contractual rights that many private employers (and, for that matter many, of their employees) may find distressing. ...more
The employer/employee relationship is among the most regulated.
There are many (some argue too many) federal and state laws that govern how employers may and may not treat applicants and employees....more
Employers, it seems, can't catch a break these days.
They build businesses. They take risks. They face increasing supply costs, supply-chain problems, interest rates, and staff-shortages...more
You may understandably think that everything about this subject has been resolved long ago. But you would be wrong if you do. The federal law that undergirds most of what you think you know about how employers have to pay...more
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. observed that democracy is messy and hard.
The serial legal battle over COVID-19 and what the federal government can and should make employers do about it illustrates the point. ...more
Litigation usually proceeds at a maddeningly glacial pace. Not this time.
The Past - The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's ("OSHA") well-publicized and controversial Emergency Temporary Standard ("ETS") was...more
11/17/2021
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Health and Safety ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Masks ,
OSHA ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
It's a case of "Get Ready, Get Set … Wait! -
On Saturday, November 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in response to a lawsuit filed last Friday by various plaintiffs including the Attorney General of...more
Good (and Not So Good) Things Come to Those Who Wait -
Yesterday, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA") of the U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL"), at long last, issued an "Interim final rule" regarding...more
No good deed goes unpunished -
Little did City of Durham Police Sergeant Michael Mole' know, in his first crack at negotiating on his own the surrender of an armed and barricaded suspect, that he would be fired because he...more
There was a time in which employers and employees weren’t vexed with viruses, vaccines, and their respective duties and rights.
That seems like a long time ago, but it wasn’t. The World Health Organization declared the...more
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), signed into law on March 11, 2021, includes a whole host of requirements and provisions impacting private employers, their employees, and the benefit plans they offer....more
Arbitrary judgments are as old as humanity itself. Law evolved in part to try to spare us all from some of them and provide order and predictability in their place. That evolution, and occasional revolution, eventually gave...more
The federal "Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020" ("FFCRA" or the "Act") became law on March 18, 2020. It was enacted into law the way in which all federal statutes are: it was adopted by Congress and then...more
Politics could hardly be more conspicuous these days. A monumental presidential election looms on the horizon, and it seems that everyone has an opinion.
Many who do have jobs and bring those opinions into the workplace....more
“Change is the only constant in life.” - Heraclitus (535 to 475 B.C.E.) -
Registered nurses at HCA Healthcare's Mission Health system in Asheville have recently voted to be represented by the National Nurses Organizing...more
9/24/2020
/ Bargaining Units ,
Bureau of Labor Statistics ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Health Care Providers ,
Labor Law Violations ,
NLRB ,
Nurses ,
Small Employers ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Union Representatives ,
Unions
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged businesses and employers in ways that few thought possible just six months ago.
Untold millions have lost jobs, and vast numbers of businesses have been forced to close in an attempt to...more
The world continues to combat the devastating COVID-19 global pandemic. Many businesses have been forced to lay off and/or furlough untold numbers of valued employees. Still, many employers are able to continue operating, if...more
The U.S. Department of Labor ("USDOL"), however, recently posted new "guidance" on its Questions and Answers web page, asserting that "health care provider" has two different meanings under the FFCRA. Based on the most recent...more
The world seems to have shifted beneath our feet – to have become alien and dangerous.
That's no doubt true, but we've been here before. More than 100 years ago, soon after the end of World War I, we encountered the...more
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 ("FLSA"), for decades, has permitted employers to pay some workers a lower minimum hourly wage than would otherwise be due if the workers receive at least a minimum amount per month in the...more
2/28/2020
/ Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Minimum Wage ,
NPRM ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Tip Credit ,
Tip-Pooling ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
How does the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission evaluate discrimination complaints?
What trends is it seeing in the cases it’s reviewing? And how do investigators assess claims involving sexual harassment and equal...more