Congress just passed a significant new law prohibiting pre-dispute arbitration agreements (and class action waivers) for claims of sexual harassment and sexual assault. In today's new episode, Michael Schmidt discusses what...more
This is Part 1 of a 2-Part episode that pits an employee-side (plaintiff) lawyer against an employer-side (defendant) lawyer to debate various HR and employment law issues, including such questions as the future of at-will...more
In this first new episode of 2020 (Season 4), we look at the 15 hot topics your company should have on your list to think about....more
1/10/2020
/ #MeToo ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Local Ordinance ,
Minimum Salary ,
Misclassification ,
Over-Time ,
Paid Leave ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Quickie Election Rules ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Union Elections ,
Unions ,
Unpaid Leave ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
This episode offers the top 10 new employment laws coming out of New York in the first half of 2019. It is significant for New York employers AND for those employers wondering what trends will be reaching their other...more
7/29/2019
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Breastfeeding ,
Drug Testing ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Pay ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Hostile Environment ,
Human Rights ,
Lactation Accommodation ,
Local Ordinance ,
Mayor de Blasio ,
New Legislation ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
This special Valentine’s Day episode discusses the pros and cons of employers entering into love contracts with its employees....more
2/14/2019
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Best Management Practices ,
Co-Workers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Love Contracts ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Supervisors ,
Workplace Romances
This special episode discusses the new sexual harassment training and policy requirements imposed by New York State and New York City (following a brief discussion of a significant development on joint employer liability)....more
9/26/2018
/ #MeToo ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Joint Liability ,
New Rules ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Popular ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Title VII
We're back! This brand new episode addresses the 10 developments you may have missed from this past summer of 2018, including employees secretly recording the workplace, new non-compete legislation, the unstoppable #MeToo...more
9/11/2018
/ #MeToo ,
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employee Rights ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Policies ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
New Legislation ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Opinion Letter ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Social Media Policy ,
State Labor Laws ,
Video Recordings ,
Wage and Hour
This episode flashes back to 1980's 9 to 5 workplace, and then goes back to the future to compare today's workplace of emoji harassment, a new game-changing overtime exemption rule, the 1st ever employer antitrust complaint...more
4/17/2018
/ Attorney General ,
Burden of Proof ,
Car Dealerships ,
Competition ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Emoji ,
Emotional Distress Damages ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Memorandum of Guidance ,
Navarro v Encino Motorcars ,
No-Poaching ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Over-Time ,
Payroll Audit Independent Determination program (PAID) ,
SCOTUS ,
Service Advisors ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Data Breach Notification Statutes ,
State Labor Laws ,
Statutory Construction Test ,
Voluntary Self-Audit ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Communication ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance
Is the Superbowl creeping into your workplace this week? Does Washington’s new tax reform impact how you settle sexual harassment cases? Can you actually go to jail for signing a restrictive covenant? Is there a new kind of...more
1/29/2018
/ Confidentiality Agreements ,
Effective Date ,
Employment Policies ,
Football ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
No-Poaching ,
Obama Administration ,
Release Agreements ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Separation Agreement ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Severance Agreements ,
Sexual Abuse ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Social Media Policy ,
Sports Gambling ,
Tax Deductions ,
Tax Reform ,
Title VII
From federal agency changes to anticipated developments in sexual harassment, paid leave, overtime, and marijuana use, this episode of Employment Law Now provides ten issues that employers should resolve to understand in the...more
1/8/2018
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Arbitration ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Cybersecurity ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Drug Testing ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
FMLA Abuse ,
Freedom of Religion ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Internal Audit Functions ,
IRS ,
Marijuana ,
Maternity Leave ,
NLRB ,
Over-Time ,
Paid Leave ,
Paternity Leave ,
Primary Beneficiary Test ,
Protected Class ,
Salary/Wage History ,
SCOTUS ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Tax Reform ,
Transgender
Good faith and timing means everything in employment law. This episode of Employment Law Now provides an update from DC, discusses questions employers should be asking in today’s climate of troubling sexual harassment news,...more
12/4/2017
/ Complaint Procedures ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Good Faith ,
Hiring & Firing ,
NLRB ,
Obscenity ,
Protected Class ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Social Media ,
Social Media Policy ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
Unemployment Benefits ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance ,
Zero Tolerance Policies
Michael Schmidt, Vice Chair of Cozen O’Connor’s Labor & Employment Department, discusses current employment law news, trends, developments and guest analysis. This episode presents the first of two parts of a timely and...more
7/20/2017
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Compliance ,
Dress Codes ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
Harassment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
Popular ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Religious Clothing ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Strategic Enforcement Plan ,
Title VII
Another New Year is upon us, and employers doing business in New York will begin 2016 with some significant New Year’s resolutions. So here are the top five new laws signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo that are designed to...more
I ended 2012 as I have the past couple of years, highlighting my view that, while technological advances are great in many respects, it’s still the inter-personal relationships that lead to success in our professional and...more
Happy New Year. So much has happened while you spent the holidays undoubtedly velobinding and wrapping the 2012 archives of this blog for your friends and loved ones. So I thought I’d welcome everyone back by updating some...more
Well, your company is certainly not intending for it to be a sexual holiday party. But, truth be told, it wouldn’t be the first story of an off-site end-of-the-year holiday shindig (with complimentary alcohol) that got a bit...more