On April 15, 2024, the EEOC issued its final regulation and interpretive guidance (“PWFA Regulations”) for the enforcement of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA”), a law that took effect in June 2023. The PWFA...more
4/18/2024
/ Employee Rights ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Labor Reform ,
Pregnancy ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Title VII
More Fallout From The FTC Proposed Noncompete Rule. As Seyfarth summarized here, and we podcasted and summarized here, the FTC has published a proposed rule which would ban all non-compete agreements between employers and...more
#EmbraceEquity — International Women’s Day and Month. March of each year is designated as Women’s History Month, and March 08 as International Women’s Day. Seyfarth has its own tag dedicated to issues of pay equity and, in...more
Biden Officially Nominates Su To Replace Marty Walsh. This week, President Biden officially announced the nomination of Julie Su to replace Marty Walsh atop the Department of Labor. We have had numerous occasions to discuss...more
3/6/2023
/ Arbitration ,
Biden Administration ,
California ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc v Hewitt No 21-984 ,
Labor Reform ,
NLRB ,
Non-Disparagement Provisions ,
Severance Agreements ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Groundhog Day: Second Proposed Wage and Hour Boss Stuck By Senate HELP. After the Senate voted down a cloture motion to advance the nomination of Dr. David Weil to return as U.S. DOL Wage and Hour Division (“WHD”)...more
Labor Agencies Beware: Congressional Oversight To Kick Up In 2023. Shortly after Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) ascension to the speakership, the House of Representatives reinstalled Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) as chair of the Committee...more
Labor Employment Policy Highlights of 2022. This past term saw more legislation pass through congressional chambers at a more efficient clip than we have seen in quite some time. That does not mean that federal agencies were...more
1/16/2023
/ #MeToo ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) ,
Labor Reform ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (“PUMP Act”) ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Wage and Hour
New ESG Final Rule, Finally. About a year ago, in this very space, we discussed the Department of Labor’s proposed rule to permit managers of employee benefits plans under ERISA to consider environmental, social, and...more
Midterm Dust Finally Settles (For The Most Part). What do we know as of the publication of this newsletter? First, the results were not close to as red as most historians ventured, but republicans were still able to flip...more
More Of The Great Loosening. Joe Biden surprised — and irked — many of his constituents when he announced during a 60 Minutes interview that the pandemic is essentially over. The World Health Organization would disagree on...more
Seyfarth Hosts Government Relations Policy Summit. Aaand we are back to our regular scheduled programming. On September 30 2022, Seyfarth hosted an in-person policy summit that included four panels and a keynote...more
NLRB Proposes New Rulemaking On Joint Employment. The standard for determining joint employment for purposes of the National Labor Relations Act is primed to increase exposure for employers, especially employers with...more
If Current Polling Holds, Expect Additional Executive Action In 2023 And 2024. This newsletter has often had occasion to discuss the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the context of addressing rules...more
Seyfarth Synopsis. On Thursday, August 18, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) replaced its Directive 2022-01, entitled “Pay Equity Audits” (effective March 15, 2022, the “March Directive”), with a...more
Inflation Reduction Act Of 2022. After the so-called “vote-a-rama,” that lasted all night and into the morning last Saturday / Sunday, the Senate finally voted to pass the Act through reconciliation, by a 51-50 vote margin...more
8/16/2022
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Gig Economy ,
Governor DeSantis ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Public Schools ,
Stop Woke Act ,
Title III ,
Website Accessibility ,
Websites
Sens. Schumer and Manchin Finally Agree On Contours Of Next Reconciliation Package. We have been following, and reporting on, the saga surrounding the next democrat only package, originally designated the Build Back Better...more
Annnnd We're Back: Legislative Update. We appreciate this audience bearing with us as this newsletter has been on a short hiatus in light of some scheduling issues. During that brief respite numerous different pieces of...more
7/19/2022
/ Arbitration ,
Competition ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
DFEH ,
EEO-1 ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Heat Exposure ,
Independent Contractors ,
Innovation ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
Paid Leave ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Pre-Dispute Arbitration ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
SCOTUS ,
Stop Woke Act ,
Vaccinations ,
Viking River Cruises Inc v Moriana ,
Wage and Hour ,
Ways and Means Committee ,
West Virginia v EPA ,
Whistleblowers ,
Workplace Safety
RISE and SHINE Act. It is just a discussion draft, so need to get too excited at the prospect of more bi-partisanship (maybe this author is alone in his excitement over that potential), but recently, Chair Patty Murray and...more
DOL’s 2023 Priorities, Per Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. Additional personnel topped Labor Secretary Marty Walsh’s wish list for 2023 as he laid out next year’s proposed budget at a hearing in front of the Subcommittee on...more
Uniting for Ukraine. While, currently, there is more than enough political news to support the 24 hours news cycle, the ongoing crises in Ukraine continues to be one of the top beats. The U.S. has been in lockstep with its...more
COVID-19 Relief? It has been a nice respite not touching on COVID-19 recently in this space. But COVID-19 will likely remain an issue employers must front for the foreseeable future. To that end, on April 07, the House of...more
House Passes Bill To Extend Recent Prohibition On Arbitration Of Sexual Harassment. While the 50-50 partisan split in the Senate has caused an uneven legislative road since the onset of the Biden Administration, legislation...more
Biden Administration Pursues Labor Goals From All Angles, Despite Hiccups, With No Sign of Slowing Down. With the PRO Act stalled in the Senate and unlikely to pass in anything close to its existing form, the Biden...more
Senate Passes The “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021”; Biden Signature Imminent. As Seyfarth noted in this legal update, the central thrust of the measure is to permit persons...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: For more than twelve years, there have been efforts in Congress to limit the scope of mandatory employment arbitration agreements to exclude sexual harassment and sexual assault claims. Following the “Me...more