In Verizon New York, Inc. (Verizon), the National Labor Relations Board (Board) recently found that a work rule reserving the right for the company to monitor and/or search personal property, and a rule permitting the company...more
7/8/2020
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Personal Property ,
Purple Communications ,
Section 7 ,
Security Checks ,
Unions
On June 18, 2020, The United States Supreme Court ruled, 5 to 4, that the Trump Administration could not immediately shut down DACA, a program protecting nearly 700,000 young immigrants, many children, from Deportation....more
6/22/2020
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Arbitrary and Capricious ,
Citizenship ,
DACA ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Homeland Security v Regents of the University of California ,
Educational Institutions ,
Path To Citizenship ,
Rescission ,
SCOTUS ,
Trump Administration ,
Trump v NAACP ,
USCIS ,
Wolf v Vidal ,
Work Permits
Today, in Bostock v. Clayton County, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling holding that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and transgender status in the...more
6/15/2020
/ Altitude Express Inc v Zarda ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
EEOC v RG & GR Harris Funeral Homes ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gender Identity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) represented a lifeline to many businesses struggling to stay afloat amid the Coronavirus pandemic by providing forgivable loans to businesses to cover payroll and certain non-payroll...more
On May 15, 2020, the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) issued its loan forgiveness application for businesses that received loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”).
...more
On May 15, 2020, the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) issued its loan forgiveness application for businesses who received loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”). ...more
In response to public criticism regarding the disbursement of loans to larger companies, on April 23, the Small Business Administration (SBA) issued guidance stressing that Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applicants...more
As reported in our prior alert, on April 13, 2020, the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission (IWCC) issued an emergency rule creating a rebuttable presumption that first responders and other essential workers identified...more
Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act prohibits intentional race discrimination in all forms of contracting including employment. Lower courts have split as to whether a § 1981 plaintiff must prove that race was only one...more
3/30/2020
/ 42 U. S. C. § 1981 ,
Appeals ,
Burden of Proof ,
But For Causation ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Comcast ,
Comcast Corp. v National Association of African American-Owned Media ,
Commercial Contracts ,
Dismissals ,
Employment Contract ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Race Discrimination ,
Racial Bias ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
Substantial Motivating Factor Test ,
Television Broadcast Stations ,
Title VII
An Illinois appellate court recently clarified the outer limits of the controversial “inevitable disclosure doctrine” under the Illinois Trade Secrets Act....more
2/13/2020
/ Competition ,
Confidential Information ,
Contract Terms ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Former Employee ,
Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Manufacturers ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
PepsiCo ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Trade Secrets
This week, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision in Kisor v. Wilkie, a case seeking to overturn prior precedent requiring deference to federal agencies’ interpretations of their regulations. The case involved a...more
6/28/2019
/ Administrative Agencies ,
Ambiguous ,
Appeals ,
Auer Deference ,
Kisor v Wilkie ,
Reasonable Interpretations ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
Stare Decisis ,
Vacated ,
Veterans' Benefits
The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will address whether federal civil rights laws protect gay, lesbian, and transgender employees from discrimination. The Court will hear three cases—from New York, Georgia, and...more
4/23/2019
/ Altitude Express Inc v Zarda ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Certiorari ,
Civil Rights Act ,
EEOC v RG & GR Harris Funeral Homes ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gender Identity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
On September 18, 2018, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood reached a settlement with WeWork a shared offices company that provides services around the world. Illinois and New...more
On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (which covers Connecticut, New York, and Vermont), became the second federal appellate court to explicitly hold that federal law prohibits employment discrimination...more
3/1/2018
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gender Identity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
In 2010, as part of the sweeping regulatory reforms of the Dodd-Frank Act, which was passed in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown, Congress expanded whistleblower protections provided to employees who report SEC...more
2/23/2018
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Digital Realty Trust Inc v Somers ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Internal Reporting ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
Just like the leaves turning colors, you can count on a flurry of court filings from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) every September as the agency rushes to get cases on file before the end of its fiscal...more
10/4/2017
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Filing Requirements ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gender Identity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Home Depot ,
Hostile Environment ,
LGBTQ ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
Popular ,
Retaliation ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII
Recently, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit blocked the implementation of Seattle Ordinance 124968, which would allow drivers for ride-sharing apps such as Uber and Lyft to form unions, while a suit over...more
9/27/2017
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Appeals ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Local Ordinance ,
Lyft ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Price-Fixing ,
Sharing Economy ,
Uber ,
Union Organizers ,
Unions
Recently, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has sent mixed signals to employers regarding its efforts to collect salary and pay data to combat pay inequity based on gender and race. Many employers are left...more
9/22/2017
/ Data Collection ,
EEO-1 ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
OMB ,
Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Gap ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Wage and Hour
A recent decision issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit serves as a cautionary tale for employers quick to deny employees’ requests for accommodations after returning from maternity leave. The Pregnancy...more
Last week, a U.S. District Court Judge in Illinois ruled that an arbitration agreement signed by an Uber driver required arbitration on the issue of whether Uber drivers are employees or independent contractors before the...more
7/25/2017
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Minimum Wage ,
Misclassification ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Over-Time ,
Section 7 ,
Uber ,
Wage and Hour
Setting the stage for the U.S. Supreme Court to tackle the issue, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin) yesterday overturned decades of precedent and held that Title VII of the...more
Disney continues to face legal repercussions from the company’s 2014/15 layoffs of numerous American IT workers, and the outsourcing of their functions to two Indian companies employing H-1B workers. On Monday, Dec. 12th,...more
12/20/2016
/ Age Discrimination ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Disney ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Florida ,
Foreign Workers ,
H-1B ,
Layoffs ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
Outsourcing ,
OWBPA ,
Popular ,
Race Discrimination ,
RICO ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wrongful Termination
Two recent court decisions highlight the ongoing struggle by federal courts to determine whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination based on sexual orientation....more
12/5/2016
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Colleges ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gender Identity ,
Harassment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Hostile Environment ,
Judicial Appointments ,
LGBTQ ,
Obergefell v. Hodges ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Trump Administration
On Wednesday, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed suit against fast-food franchisor Jimmy John’s and several Jimmy John’s franchisees operating in Illinois claiming that Jimmy John’s and its franchises unlawfully...more
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the statute of limitations for purposes of filing a claim alleging constructive discharge begins to run on the date that the employee resigns, as opposed to the last discriminatory...more
5/26/2016
/ Constructive Discharge ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Green v Brennan ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Race Discrimination ,
Resignation ,
Retaliation ,
SCOTUS ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Title VII ,
USPS