A judge in the Northern District of Texas issued an order setting aside the Federal Trade Commission’s rule banning non-compete agreements and ordered that the rule shall not be enforced or otherwise take effect on September...more
On August 14th, a second federal judge, this time out of the Middle District of Florida, temporarily blocked the FTC’s rule banning non-compete agreements, but only as to the named plaintiff in that case. In Properties of...more
On July 3, 2024, the Federal District Court in the Northern District of Texas in Ryan LLC v. Federal Trade Commission granted a preliminary injunction staying the effective date of the FTC’s non-compete rule and enjoining the...more
The United States Equal Employment Opportunity (“EEOC”) has issued its final guidance on “Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace,” the first of its kind in over 20 years. This final guidance builds on a variety...more
5/30/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Enforcement ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Guidance ,
Gender Identity ,
Minimum Salary ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Protected Class ,
Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (“PUMP Act”) ,
Race Discrimination ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Remote Working ,
Retaliation ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance
On April 23, 2024, by a 3-2 margin, the FTC voted to finalize its controversial non-compete rule, which, generally, will prohibit businesses from entering into non-compete agreements with nearly all workers across the U.S....more
4/26/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Bans ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
FTC Act ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Trade Secrets
In a hotly anticipated decision, the New York State Appellate Division, Second Department held in Grant v. Global Aircraft Dispatch, Inc. that manual workers do not have a private right of action under the New York Labor Law...more
1/24/2024
/ Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Class Action ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
New York ,
NYDOL ,
Private Right of Action ,
State Budgets ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unpaid Wages ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wages
Hoping to “raise the bar” for the rest of the nation, Governor Hochul announced a first of its kind proposal that would allow qualifying workers in New York up to 40 hours of paid leave to attend prenatal appointments. While...more
1/18/2024
/ Disability Leave ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Medical Leave ,
New Legislation ,
New York ,
Paid Leave ,
Pregnancy ,
Wage and Hour
On December 22, 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul vetoed legislation that would have instituted a near-universal ban on non-competition provisions in New York after negotiations between the Governor and the bill’s...more
The City of Chicago recently enacted a new Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave ordinance. Though initially slated to go into effect December 31, 2023, on December 13, 2023, the Chicago City Council voted to amend the...more
12/22/2023
/ Cause of Action Accrual ,
City of Chicago ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Documentation ,
Eligibility ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Notice Requirements ,
Paid Leave ,
Paid Sick Leave ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Recordkeeping Requirements
Although 2023 perhaps did not see the passage of any laws quite as impactful as 2022—which, as employers will recall, included New York State enacting its own pay transparency law (see here) and novel New York City Council...more
12/15/2023
/ #MeToo ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Earned Sick and Safe Time Act ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Facebook ,
Freelance Isn't Free Act (FIFA) ,
Freelance Workers ,
Harassment ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Minimum Wage ,
New York ,
NYDOL ,
Pay Transparency ,
Remote Working ,
Retaliation ,
Settlement ,
State Labor Laws ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Theft ,
WARN Act
In an effort to further restrict the use of confidentiality clauses when resolving employment discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, New York recently passed S4516, which amends Section 5-336 of the New York...more
In her first public comments since its passage, New York Governor Kathy Hochul expressed a desire to see changes in New York’s proposed ban on non-compete agreements (SB 3100) before she would consider signing the bill. We...more
The City of Chicago recently enacted a new Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave ordinance which goes into effect December 31, 2023. The update is notable because it goes well beyond the recently passed Illinois Paid Leave...more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") released its Proposed Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace. In light of recent legal developments, such as the Bostock v. Clayton County decision, which...more
10/17/2023
/ #MeToo ,
Abortion ,
Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Confidential Information ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
Harassment ,
Popular ,
Proposed Guidance ,
Race Discrimination ,
Social Media ,
Title IX ,
Transgender ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance
In 2020, New York City amended its paid sick leave law, named the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (“ESSTA”), to better align with New York State’s Paid Sick Leave law. Following these amendments, the Department of Consumer and...more
On the heels of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent decision clarifying its view of properly pled Title VII disparate treatment discrimination claims, which we previously covered here, the Second Circuit Court of...more
The U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) recently announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which could make at least 3 million more lower-wage workers overtime-eligible....more
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion in Wright v. Eugene & Agnes E. Meyer Foundation raises some concerns with otherwise limited non-disparagement provisions, which we discuss below.
The D.C. Circuit Court of...more
The U.S. Supreme Court recently issued a unanimous opinion in Groff v. DeJoy that effectively made it easier for employees to secure religious-based accommodations in the workplace.
Prior to DeJoy, an employer could...more
7/25/2023
/ Civil Rights Act ,
De Minimus Doctrine ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Groff v DeJoy ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Accommodation ,
SCOTUS ,
Substantial Burden ,
Title VII ,
Undue Hardship ,
USPS
Non-compete agreements may soon be a thing of the past in New York. Following the passage by the New York State Senate of S3100A, the State Assembly passed A1278B, and if signed into law, it would add new Section 191-d into...more
New York may become the latest state to ban non-compete agreements after the New York State Assembly and Senate each passed legislation seeking to curtail their use by employers. This comes on the heels of a proposal by the...more
The New York City Council has passed a bill amending the City’s anti-discrimination statute (the New York City Human Rights Law or “NYCHRL”) to prohibit discrimination and harassment on the basis of an individual’s “height”...more
5/22/2023
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Anti-Harassment Policies ,
City of New York ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employee Training ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Hairstyle Discrimination ,
Harassment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Housing Discrimination ,
Human Rights ,
Job Applicants ,
Public Accommodation
The NLRB’s General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo has released a memo offering further guidance on the Board’s recent decision in McLaren Macomb. In our previous post addressing that decision, we highlighted several outstanding...more
UPDATE: Governor Hochul has signed the below amendments into law – the amended New York State pay transparency rules will become effective September 17, 2023.
Coming on the heels of Governor Hochul signing into law New...more
Coming on the heels of Governor Hochul signing into law New York State’s pay transparency law on December 21, 2022—which we reported on here—the New York State Legislature recently approved chapter amendments to the law,...more