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
Executive Summary: The Georgia Restrictive Covenants Act (O.C.G.A. § 13-8-50, et seq.) (“RCA”) governs restrictive covenant agreements in Georgia entered into after May 2011. The RCA expressly addresses non-compete,...more
6/20/2020
/ Abuse of Discretion ,
Confidential Information ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
No-Hire/No-Solicitation Agreements ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants
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
On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to provide aid to small to mid-sized businesses and modify various benefit and tax provisions to mitigate the effects of...more
The President has signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”), which is a $2 trillion relief package aimed at helping mitigate some of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic....more
In late 2019, the Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta federal court) addressed the duties owed when an independent contractor leaves one trucking company to work for another. In Wind Logistics Prof’l v. Universal Truckload,...more
3/3/2020
/ Breach of Duty ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Contract Terms ,
Duty of Loyalty ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Former Employee ,
Independent Contractors ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Trucking Industry
Applying the “economic realities” test, the Fifth Circuit (with jurisdiction over federal courts in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) recently held that a consultant for an oil and gas company was not subject to FLSA...more
2/26/2020
/ Appeals ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Contract Terms ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Summary Judgment ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Unpaid Wages ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
As of January 6, 2020, New York employers are prohibited from inquiring about an applicant’s prior salary. The ban, codified as N.Y. Lab. Law § 194-a, was signed into law by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on July 10, 2019,...more
1/10/2020
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Pay ,
Gender Equity ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
New Legislation ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Pay Gap ,
Salary/Wage History ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
Georgia’s Restrictive Covenants Act (O.C.G.A. § 13-8-50 et seq.) (“RCA”) governs Georgia non-compete agreements entered into after May 2011. Very few courts have interpreted the RCA since its inception. In Bearoff v. Craton,...more
9/4/2019
/ Appeals ,
Breach of Contract ,
Business Disputes ,
Business Litigation ,
Cease and Desist Orders ,
Chapter 11 ,
Chapter 7 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Confidential Information ,
Contract Terms ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Liquidation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Selling a Business ,
Statutory Interpretation
On April 3, 2019, New Mexico expanded the state’s “Ban the Box” law to include private employers. “Ban the Box” is a nationwide effort to eliminate the checkbox on employment applications inquiring into applicants’ criminal...more
Approximately one year ago, in Epic Systems Corp., the United States Supreme Court upheld the enforceability of mandatory arbitration agreements that prohibit employees from bringing employment claims on a class or collective...more
4/26/2019
/ Ambiguous ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Arbitration ,
Consent ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Federal v State Law Application ,
Jurisdiction ,
Lamps Plus Inc v Varela ,
Motion to Compel ,
Preemption ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS
The Georgia Restrictive Covenants Act (O.C.G.A. § 13-8-50 et seq.) governs non-compete agreements in Georgia entered into after May 2011 and sets forth that such agreements can be used only with respect to certain employees. ...more
3/14/2019
/ Appeals ,
Competition ,
Confidential Information ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Duties ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants
This month, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s award of attorneys’ fees to an employer after it had been granted a preliminary injunction against its former employees. See Kelly...more
Executive Summary: In New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira, the U.S. Supreme Court held yesterday that the Federal Arbitration Act’s (FAA) exclusion of certain “contracts of employment” from the Act’s coverage applies to transportation...more
1/16/2019
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Employment Contract ,
Exceptions ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Independent Contractors ,
Motion to Compel ,
New Prime v Oliveira ,
Question of Arbitrability ,
Reaffirmation ,
SCOTUS
Last month, California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal issued AMN Healthcare, Inc. v. Aya Healthcare Servs., Inc., 28 Cal. App. 5th 923 (Cal. Ct. App. 2018), a decision calling into question the validity of non-solicitation...more
12/7/2018
/ Anti-Piracy ,
Appeals ,
Breach of Contract ,
Confidential Information ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
No-Poaching ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Staffing Agencies
Georgia’s Restrictive Covenants Act (the “RCA”) became effective in May 2011, but it took nearly six years before a court published a decision interpreting the statute in the context of a non-competition provision....more
Wage and Hour claims, especially those brought in a collective and/or class action context, remain the most dominant lawsuit brought against employers. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court expressly upheld class action...more
Effective May 2011, Georgia’s Restrictive Covenants Act (RCA) represented a significant change to pre-existing Georgia law. Since then, however, very few courts have interpreted the RCA, leaving employers and practitioners...more
Yesterday, the Supreme Court, in a strongly divided 5-4 ruling, upheld mandatory arbitration agreements prohibiting employees from bringing employment claims on a class or collective basis. ...more
5/22/2018
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Epic Systems Corp v Lewis ,
Ernst & Young v Morris ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Murphy Oil v NLRB ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
Savings Clause ,
SCOTUS
The federal Equal Pay Act already imposes limitations on employers when it comes to compensating employees of the opposite sex for equal work....more
4/20/2018
/ Appeals ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Pay ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Pay Gap ,
Popular ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Wage and Hour
As reported last week, on March 23rd, President Trump signed into law a massive spending bill that, among other things, amended the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to clarify that a manager or supervisor may not keep his...more
4/13/2018
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Field Assistance Bulletins ,
Food Service Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Minimum Wage ,
New Legislation ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tip-Pooling ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
On March 23rd, President Trump signed into law a massive spending bill. Buried on page 2025 of the spending bill, available here, is the following amendment to Section 203(m) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the...more
4/2/2018
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Minimum Wage ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tip-Pooling ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
Federal regulations currently treat tips as the employee’s property, regardless of whether the employer pays that employee the minimum wage or whether it uses a tip credit to satisfy the minimum wage requirement. ...more
2/2/2018
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Minimum Wage ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
Georgia’s recent Restrictive Covenant Act, enacted in 2011, does not directly address non-solicitation of employees a/k/a non-recruitment covenants, thereby leaving such provisions subject to the principles developed by...more
11/21/2017
/ Appeals ,
Cease and Desist Orders ,
Confidential Information ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Geographic Markets ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants
Quite a bit of effort goes into making an enjoyable restaurant experience, such as good food, prompt service and, of course, cleanliness. Want to reward the dishwashers for providing you with spotless silverware, expediters...more
7/26/2017
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Minimum Wage ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tip-Pooling ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour