We’ve been asking for increased regulation of the gig economy, and we got it – just not the kind of regulation businesses were hoping for. While gig businesses are craving a modern regulatory approach to misclassification...more
8/10/2018
/ Drivers ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Licenses ,
Mayor de Blasio ,
Minimum Wage ,
New Legislation ,
Ridesharing ,
Traffic Laws ,
Transportation Industry ,
Wage and Hour
There has been a burst of recent Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) decisions from around the country that can teach valuable lessons to employers. Last month, we looked at three cases examining the question of whether an...more
8/9/2018
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Dismissals ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Essential Functions ,
Job Descriptions ,
Job Duties ,
Over-Time ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Wage and Hour
You remember the game-changing, earth-shattering, monumental decision from the California Supreme Court a few months ago that fundamentally changes the test to determine whether your workers are independent contractors or...more
7/20/2018
/ ABC Test ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Class Action ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Retroactive Application ,
Wage and Hour
Interpreting and applying the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is often among the most challenging aspects of managing the workplace law and human resources functions at your workplace. There are numerous issues to...more
7/5/2018
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Disability ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Interactive Process ,
Medical Leave ,
Over-Time ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Wage and Hour
Now that sports betting has been legalized by the Supreme Court, I might want to consider laying some action on an upcoming game, because I am on fire with my recent predictions. In a blog post from last week, I correctly...more
5/16/2018
/ ABC Test ,
Appeals ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gig Economy ,
GrubHub ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Reimbursements ,
Retroactive Application ,
Wage and Hour
The ink on the Dynamex court decision is barely dry, but plaintiffs’ attorneys are not wasting any time in taking advantage of the new misclassification standard established for California businesses. In a pair of lawsuits...more
5/11/2018
/ ABC Test ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Wage and Hour
Late Friday afternoon, the attorneys for the worker who came out on the losing end of the Grubhub misclassification trial asked the appeals court to return the case to the lower court for a new hearing. Their reasoning? Last...more
5/8/2018
/ ABC Test ,
Appeals ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gig Economy ,
GrubHub ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Motion to Remand ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Retroactive Application ,
Wage and Hour
May the 4th has become known as Star Wars Day given the movie franchise’s most famous tag line. Today provides an opportunity for us to examine a recent employment law development of massive significance—a great disturbance...more
My colleague Ashton Riley described it as the “contractor apocalypse.” As I said for an interview in the New York Times, “It’s a massive thing – definitely a game-changer that will force everyone to take a fresh look at the...more
A delivery driver for gig economy company DoorDash has been ordered by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to take his misclassification case to a private arbitrator instead of court pursuant to a valid arbitration agreement he...more
4/30/2018
/ American Arbitration Association ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Arbitrators ,
Class Certification ,
Collective Actions ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employment Contract ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Wage and Hour
In another victory for gig economy companies reliant upon the independent contractor business model, a Pennsylvania federal court ruled on April 11th that a collection of UberBLACK drivers were properly classified as...more
4/13/2018
/ Class Action ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Gig Economy ,
GrubHub ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Ridesharing ,
Right to Control ,
Uber ,
Wage and Hour
In a landmark decision that will accelerate the growing pay equity movement, especially for employers on the west coast, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today became the latest federal court of appeals to rule that employers...more
Imagine one of your worst corporate nightmares comes true: a government body has determined that you have misclassified your workers, and they should be considered employees and not contractors. The ramifications could be...more
Early last month, we told you that a critical trial ruling in a gig economy misclassification case could be put on hold because a separate court was mulling whether to loosen the test to make it easier for workers to succeed...more
For the first time, a large, publicly traded company—Japanese web-business GMO Internet—has announced that it will soon offer its employees the chance to receive their pay in the world’s most popular cryptocurrency: bitcoin....more
2/2/2018
/ Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
Compensation ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Currency ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Fair Market Value ,
IRS ,
Minimum Wage ,
Over-Time ,
Popular ,
Wage and Hour
If Congress cannot approve a budget by this Friday at midnight, the federal government will shut down. What will this mean for employers across the country? A look back at the most recent government shutdown will provide...more
1/18/2018
/ Budget Reconciliation ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
E-Verify ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Government Shutdown ,
Green Cards ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
PERM ,
Small Business ,
Trump Administration ,
US State Departments ,
USCIS ,
Visas ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Visas ,
Workplace Safety
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (H.R. 1), passed by Congress on December 20 and expected to be signed into law by President Trump in the coming days, contains several provisions that will directly impact employers and workplace...more
12/22/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Business Ownership ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fringe Benefits ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Individual Mandate ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Paid Leave ,
Repeal ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Tax Credits ,
Tax Deductions ,
Tax Incentives ,
Tax Reform ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes each month in 2017. November was no...more
12/7/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Appeals ,
Attorney General ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Electronic Filing ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Failed Legislation ,
Fair Workweek ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Fines ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gig Economy ,
Harassment ,
Independent Contractors ,
IRS ,
Joint Employers ,
LGBTQ ,
Marijuana ,
Misclassification ,
Paid Leave ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Proposed Rules ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Salary/Wage History ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Tax Penalties ,
Title VII ,
Uber ,
UK ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules ,
Workplace Illness and Injury Reporting
The Oregon state agency charged with enforcing the state’s wage and hour laws has announced the largest civil penalty against an employer in its long history – nearly $277,000. According to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and...more
If a proposal introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday were to pass Congress and be signed into law by President Trump, the country’s employers would find themselves facing the first-ever federal paid leave...more
11/6/2017
/ Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Paid Leave ,
Parental Leave ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Safe Harbors ,
State and Local Government ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes each month in 2017. October was no...more
11/3/2017
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Affordable Care Act ,
Appeals ,
Ban the Box ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Training ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Gig Economy ,
Governor Brown ,
GrubHub ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
New Rules ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
Over-Time ,
Parental Leave ,
Preventive Health Care ,
Proposed Rules ,
Restraining Orders ,
Retaliation ,
Salary/Wage History ,
SCOTUS ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
State Legislatures ,
Tip-Pooling ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Travel Ban ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour ,
Whistleblowers
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes each month in 2017. August was no...more
9/9/2017
/ Affirmative Action ,
Appeals ,
Audio Recording ,
Class Action ,
Classification ,
College Admissions ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Breach ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Gig Economy ,
Green Cards ,
Hardship Distributions ,
Hurricane Harvey ,
Identity Theft ,
Independent Contractors ,
NLRB ,
On-Demand Services ,
Online Platforms ,
Over-Time ,
Pay Data ,
Popular ,
Standing ,
Trump Administration ,
Unions ,
Vetting ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wellness Programs
Earlier this week, I wrote an article about a recent NLRB decision where the Board found a group of workers who provide video content services for the display board at Minnesota Timberwolves basketball games to be incorrectly...more
There’s good news for Oregon employers about the recently concluded 2017 legislative session: unlike years past, there were only a very small number of workplace laws passed. In fact, the Oregon Legislature only passed four...more
8/17/2017
/ Business Justification ,
Earned Sick Time ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Pay ,
Fair Workweek ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Governor Brown ,
New Legislation ,
Over-Time ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Pay Gap ,
State and Local Government ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules
A federal court judge in North Carolina last week granted permission to a group of Uber drivers challenging the company’s classification structure to band together and proceed with a class action lawsuit against the...more
7/19/2017
/ Class Action ,
Conditional Certification ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Minimum Wage ,
Misclassification ,
Over-Time ,
Popular ,
Uber ,
Wage and Hour