[WEBINAR] Preparing for Changes in the “Vested Rights Doctrine” - Understanding Plan Design Options
[VIDEO] Legal Update: Is the California Rule in Flux?
[VIDEO] Pension Liability by the Numbers
[VIDEO] Perspectives: The Practical Effects of Today's Pension Programs
On Sept. 4, 2024, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation requiring public employers to notify employees if their disciplinary records are requested as part of a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request. This legislation...more
On April 17, 2024, the Oregon Court of Appeals recognized a government employee’s whistleblower claim under state law against a city that employed him under an intergovernmental agreement with another city. ...more
For decades, courts in the Fifth Circuit have followed a particularly strict rule limiting when employees can sue under Title VII for workplace discrimination. That changed last Friday....more
On August 18, 2023, in Hamilton v. Dallas County, the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upended a longstanding precedent, significantly broadening the types of adverse employment actions that could give rise to an...more
Public-sector employers in Florida will want to make certain they are in compliance with new restrictions on non-public safety unions (i.e., unions representing public-sector employees other than police officers,...more
Suppose a public employee maliciously and without probable cause files a lawsuit or initiates an administrative proceeding against you. You succeed in obtaining a dismissal, but would like to hold that employee accountable. ...more
In January 2023, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock approved an ordinance (File No. 22-1614) passed by the Denver City Council that provided new avenues for workers in the City and County of Denver to pursue claims for wage theft....more
Municipal workers in Colorado won the right to form unions with Colorado’s Collective Bargaining by County Employees Act, which goes into effect in 2023 and provides a significant expansion of collective bargaining rights for...more
A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision serves as a reminder that employers must not overlook their obligations to reemploy returning service members and accommodate service-related disabilities....more
Public employers have interests that differ from private employers. While both types of employers seek to increase their revenues, public employers have additional concerns that can take priority over short-term budgetary...more
A suite of bills aimed at further enhancing protections for both employees and independent contractors regarding discrimination, harassment and retaliation in the workplace are on the horizon in New York State. Several of...more
Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it was proposing a new rule under the Exchange Act. In an accompanying "fact sheet", the SEC said that it was doing so "to increase transparency and...more
On Tuesday, November 16, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that it is suspending all implementation and enforcement efforts related to the emergency temporary standard (ETS) on mandatory...more
No good deed goes unpunished - Little did City of Durham Police Sergeant Michael Mole' know, in his first crack at negotiating on his own the surrender of an armed and barricaded suspect, that he would be fired because he...more
The Maine Department of Labor announced on September 17, 2021 that the state’s public sector employees will be subject to President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate due to Maine’s state plan agreement with the federal...more
On August 13, 2021, Canada announced that, as early as the end of September, it will require COVID-19 vaccination across the federal public service. Accommodations or alternative measures (e.g., testing or screening) for the...more
On August 19, 2021, the City of Toronto announced that: - All members of the Toronto Public Service will be required to disclose and provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination status by September 13, 2021...more
In Sargent v. Board of Trustees of California State University, 2021 WL 836135 (March 5, 2021), the First Appellate District Court of Appeal ruled that while public entity employers were not entirely exempt from liability for...more
On October 6, 2020, in Bennett v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville, No. 19-5818, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed a district court’s decision in favor of a public employee who claimed that the city...more
On August 19, 2020, in Marquardt v. Carlton, et al., No. 19-4223, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed summary judgment for the City of Cleveland on a former employee’s claim that the city had terminated...more
Carr v. PennDOT, 2020 WL 2532232 (Pa. 2020) (Pennsylvania Supreme Court sustains the termination of employment of a public employee for a social media post). Background - The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation...more
(Public) employers rejoice! In a unanimous decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court just ruled that PennDOT did not violate an ex-employee’s free speech rights by firing her over a Facebook rant in which the ex-employee said...more
I am currently bingeing my way through HBO’s Silicon Valley after not having watched the show for several years (I’ve always found it entertaining enough, but life, you know?). The series chronicles the experiences of a small...more
On January 7, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor published three new opinion letters – two that address compliance under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and one that addresses compliance under the Family Medical Leave...more
Not sitting on its laurels, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has already issued three new opinion letters to begin the year. Two deal with issues under the FLSA and a third addresses issues under the FMLA....more