On April 17, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court held that an employee need not show “significant” harm when pursuing a discrimination claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when the claim is based on a mandatory job...more
Federal and state civil rights and anti-discrimination laws prohibit employment discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, age, genetic information, and other protected characteristics....more
On March 3, 2022, President Biden signed into law the “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act.” The law, which had bipartisan congressional support, ends the practice of including claims for...more
Williams Mullen’s Firearms Industry Group and Orchid are excited to announce open registration for the revamped 2022 Firearms Industry Conference (FIC), to be held in Atlanta this April. All Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs)...more
On June 29, 2021, the Supreme Court published its divisive opinion in Minerva Surgical, Inc. v. Hologic, Inc., Et. Al. The 5-4 decision penned by Justice Kagan upheld the centuries-old doctrine of Assignor Estoppel, while...more
COVID-19 vaccines are finally here. The rollout has begun in healthcare settings across the nation. However, despite broad support for the vaccines and their near-universal endorsement by the medical community, many...more
12/22/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Exemptions ,
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Medical Examinations ,
OSHA ,
Title VII ,
Unions ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has addressed in regulatory fashion the uncertainty over who is entitled to leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). A New York federal judge created the uncertainty...more
9/15/2020
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Intermittent Leave ,
Paid Leave ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Required Documentation ,
Sick Leave ,
Wage and Hour
Many employers are making the difficult decision to place employees on a temporary furlough or to implement more permanent layoffs or a reduction-in-force. Employers should be aware of the impact these actions have on the...more
For those of you able to keep up with the tumult of government action taken to address the repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis, you know that the North Carolina Division of Employment Security (DES) temporarily waived the...more
On Wednesday, April 1, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a temporary federal rule that provides additional guidance regarding how employers should implement the protections afforded under the Emergency Paid Sick Leave...more
On Tuesday, November 22, 2016, a federal court in Texas issued a Preliminary Injunction Order that effectively halted implementation of the new "overtime rules" mandated by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) scheduled to take...more
The day has arrived. After a long wait, on May 17, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued its final rule dealing with overtime exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
There were some changes from...more
Almost one year ago, we reported that “the speculation was over” regarding the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) long-awaited “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” (NPRM) which addressed overtime exemptions and minimum salary...more
5/3/2016
/ Barack Obama ,
CRA ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Minimum Salary ,
OMB ,
Over-Time ,
Popular ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
In an important recent decision, DeMasters v. Carilion Clinic, the Fourth Circuit determined that the so-called “manager rule” exception to federal anti-retaliation laws does not apply to employment cases filed under Title...more
8/14/2015
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Appeals ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Internal Reporting ,
Managers ,
Popular ,
Protected Activity ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Title VII
In recent years, various initiatives and enforcement efforts on both the state and federal level have arisen in an attempt to combat the misclassification of employees as independent contractors. Misclassification occurs when...more
On June 1, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the EEOC in the well-chronicled case involving a Muslim job applicant who the EEOC claimed was illegally denied employment because of her religion. In EEOC v. Abercrombie &...more
6/4/2015
/ Abercrombie & Fitch ,
Appearance Policy ,
Disparate Impact ,
Disparate Treatment ,
Dress Codes ,
EEOC v Abercrombie ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Title VII
A bill with significant implications for North Carolina employers is now pending in the North Carolina General Assembly, Senate Committee on Rules and Operations. If enacted, House Bill 318, the “Protect North Carolina...more
Classifying a worker as an independent contractor rather than an employee significantly affects an employer’s obligations towards the worker and can result in liability for misclassification. Employees are entitled by law to...more
On April 16, 2015, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published a proposed rule further addressing increasingly popular employer “wellness programs.” These programs generally incentivize employees to make...more