The Uber saga continues in O’Connor v. Uber Technologies, Inc. – a closely watched case that will impact the future of the gig economy. Last time we visited this case, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had declined to review...more
New York has amended its Business Corporation Law (BCL) to make the top ten largest shareholders of a non-publicly traded foreign corporation liable for unpaid wages. The change will go into effect in the middle of next...more
July 2016. That’s when the final rule on the white collar overtime exemptions is expected to be published by the DOL – this according to the OMB’s Fall 2015 Unified Agenda and Regulatory Plan released last Thursday. Just...more
The sharing or gig economy has introduced a new management paradigm for companies, more flexible schedules for workers, and a greater level of convenience and accountability to consumers. While there are many supporters of...more
The Department of Labor’s proposed overhaul of the white-collar exemption overtime regulations, which could expand overtime eligibility to an estimated 4.6 million workers, may not go into effect on the breakneck timeline...more
The National Labor Relations Board, in one of its first applications of the Browning-Ferris decision, gave hope to non-union contracting entities engaged in franchising and subcontracting relationships. After an extensive...more
11/4/2015
/ Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Discipline ,
Employee Transfers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Franchises ,
General Contractors ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Joint Employers ,
NLRB ,
Staffing Agencies ,
Subcontractors ,
Supervision ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Wage and Hour
In case you were wondering, and we that know you were, Governor Cuomo recently signed a bill that extends the 2012 amendments made to NY’s Wage Deduction Law until November 2018. Without the extension, the amendments would...more
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recently signed a series of bills entitled the “Women’s Equality Agenda” that significantly amend the State’s equal pay, sex discrimination, harassment and other laws to provide additional...more
10/30/2015
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Anti-Pay Secrecy ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Disparate Impact ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Pay ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Family Status Discrimination ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gender Equity ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Governor Cuomo ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Liquidated Damages ,
New Legislation ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Wage and Hour
An appeals court just made it harder for employers to challenge lawsuits against them by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on the basis that the EEOC failed to properly investigate the alleged wrongdoing before...more
At first glance, Stanziale v. MILK072011, looks like someone suing over a bad expiration date and conjures up images of Ron Burgundy proclaiming “milk was a bad choice.” But in actuality Stanziale is much more interesting: it...more
10/12/2015
/ Board of Directors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Chapter 7 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Officers ,
Directors ,
Duty of Loyalty ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Good Faith ,
Layoffs ,
Lost Wages ,
Personal Liability ,
Wage and Hour ,
WARN Act
The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) has now declared Safe Harbor invalid – in total. The ECJ has sent the case back to the Irish Data Protection Authority to determine whether Facebook Ireland’s transfer of...more
10/7/2015
/ Cloud Computing ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection Authority ,
Data Security ,
EU ,
EU Data Protection Laws ,
European Commission ,
European Court of Justice (ECJ) ,
Facebook ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
International Data Transfers ,
National Security Agency (NSA) ,
PRISM Program ,
US-EU Safe Harbor Framework
While the Dodd-Frank Act provides various protections to whistleblowers, federal courts have inconsistently interpreted who precisely qualifies as a whistleblower. In a much-anticipated opinion, the Second Circuit Court of...more
9/29/2015
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Internal Reporting ,
Interpretive Rule ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Split of Authority ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
The so-called “manager rule” addresses a concern that employers may face a “litigation minefield” if a manager whose very job duties required them to report discrimination complaints could later sue for retaliation if they...more
Last week, the Stop Credit Discrimination in Employment Act became effective. It amended the New York City Human Rights Law to prohibit most employers from making employment decisions based on an employee or applicant’s...more
9/11/2015
/ Credit Checks ,
Credit Discrimination ,
Credit History ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Employee Credit Checks ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Guidance ,
Exemptions ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
New Legislation ,
NYCHRL ,
Preponderance of the Evidence ,
Recordkeeping Requirements
A panel appointed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recommended a minimum hourly wage increase to $15 for fast food service workers on Wednesday. The recommendation comes just three months after Governor Cuomo tasked the...more
The DOL is at it again. First it was the highly-anticipated release of the proposed overtime rules a few weeks ago, and now the Department’s Wage and Hour Division has issued an “Administrator’s Interpretation” – its first...more
7/17/2015
/ Administrative Interpretation ,
Classification ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA) ,
Misclassification ,
Wage and Hour
A Federal Appeals Court recently confirmed that under certain circumstances, parties may privately settle and release claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act. A generic release contained in a settlement agreement won’t do...more
The Second Circuit struck a blow today to individuals pursuing collective/class actions alleging that unpaid interns should be classified as employees. The Court announced an employer-friendly test that asks who benefits...more
The Department of Labor has released its long-awaited notice of proposed rulemaking updating the Fair Labor Standards Act’s white collar overtime exemptions. The DOL released the proposed rule on Tuesday morning and will...more
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases during its Fall 2015 term that could further transform the wage and hour class action landscape. We briefly discuss those two cases below.
Gomez: The Effect of Rule 68...more
6/29/2015
/ Campbell Ewald v Gomez ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Genesis Healthcare Corp. v. Symczyk ,
Offer of Judgment ,
Rule 68 ,
SCOTUS ,
TCPA ,
Tyson Foods ,
Tyson Foods v Bouaphakeo ,
Wage and Hour
Since 2012, many states have enacted laws that restrict an employer’s capacity to access employees’ personal email and social media accounts. Last month, Connecticut joined the party and became the 21st state to enact an...more
Have you ever been convicted of a misdemeanor or felony that was not dismissed, expunged, or sealed? New York City employers, if you ask that question on your employment application or some version of that question, then...more
The Supreme Court recently held that job applicants may hold their potential employer liable for intentional discrimination under Title VII if the applicant can show that his or her need for an accommodation was a motivating...more
6/15/2015
/ Abercrombie & Fitch ,
Actual or Constructive Knowledge ,
Discrimination ,
EEOC v Abercrombie ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Interviews ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Title VII
Despite overwhelming judicial disapproval, the NLRB simply will not relent in its view that mandatory arbitration agreements containing class/collective action waivers violate the National Labor Relations Act....more
As has been widely reported, President Obama has ordered the US Department of Labor to updated existing federal regulations on overtime in order to account for the changing nature of the workplace and to allow both workers...more