On December 1, 2016, the date that the Department of Labor regulations were set to become effective, the government filed a notice of appeal of the November 22, 2016 the United States District Court for the Eastern District...more
After the Obama administration’s employee friendly policies, employers will have a wish list of changes they believe a Trump administration would favor. Here are ten items that should be at the top and why employers want to...more
11/17/2016
/ Arbitration ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
EEO-1 ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces ,
Federal Contractors ,
NLRA ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Over-Time ,
Trump Administration
On October 24, 2016, U.S. District Court Judge Marcia Crone of the Eastern District of Texas granted a nationwide preliminary injunction enjoining implementation of the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces regulations. In addition...more
On September 28, 2016, the SEC announced that Anheuser-Busch agreed to pay $6 million to settle charges of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Dodd-Frank whistleblower violations. The SEC’s order stated that AB InBev violated...more
9/30/2016
/ Anheuser-Busch ,
Beer ,
Books & Records ,
Breweries ,
Bribery ,
Cease and Desist Orders ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Disgorgement ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Internal Controls ,
Joint Venture ,
Popular ,
Prejudgment Interest ,
Retaliation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Separation Agreement ,
Whistleblowers
Wednesday, the SEC announced that an Atlanta-based company, BlueLinx Holdings, is settling charges that its severance agreements contained provisions that in its view might impede employees from communicating directly with...more
8/12/2016
/ Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Confidential Information ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Employment Contract ,
Rule 21F ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Violations ,
Severance Agreements ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Waivers ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
Today, the SEC announced that an Atlanta-based company, BlueLinx Holdings, is settling charges that its severance agreements contained provisions that it in its view might impede employees from communicating directly with the...more
Last week, Germany’s Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) unveiled a centralized platform for receiving whistleblower complaints, including anonymous complaints, of alleged violations of supervisory provisions within the...more
We set out below our best guess on where this leaves employees, management and HR in the UK.
Firstly as we have all heard repeatedly today, nothing is going to change immediately and that is the same for employment law. ...more
In the securities industry, the majority of all employment disputes are resolved through binding arbitration. This mandatory arbitration system is managed through a unique industry forum under the self-regulatory entity...more
In 2015, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) proposed substantial changes to the minimum salary level requirements, sought input on whether bonuses and incentives should be included in meeting the salary level test and considered...more
Rideshare companies Lyft and Uber announced on May 9 that they were no longer offering their services in Austin, Texas, after voters there rejected a proposed ordinance that would have eliminated fingerprint-based background...more
With President Barack Obama's signature on Wednesday, the Defend Trade Secrets Act ("DTSA" or "Act") has now become law. Where trade secrets were once protected only at the state level, the DTSA now federalizes trade secrets...more
5/16/2016
/ Asset Seizure ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) ,
Economic Espionage Act ,
Ex Parte ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Misappropriation ,
New Legislation ,
Private Right of Action ,
Trade Secrets ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies
With its passage by the House of Representatives, the Defend Trade Secrets Act ("DTSA" or "Act") has now cleared both houses of Congress and will be sent to President Obama for his approval. Where trade secrets were once...more
5/6/2016
/ Asset Seizure ,
Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) ,
Economic Espionage Act ,
Ex Parte ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Misappropriation ,
Pending Legislation ,
Popular ,
Private Right of Action ,
Trade Secrets ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies
On March 16, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission heard testimony from a variety of advocacy groups, academics and employer representatives on with regard to its proposed revisions to the EEO-1 adding W-2 pay data....more
Following months of waiting the UK Government has finally published its draft regulations on the new “gender pay gap reporting” requirements in the UK. On publication of the draft regulations, the UK Government has asked one...more
The President released his 2017 budget this week. Budgets are aspirational documents that Congress rarely implements in full. The current acrimony between Congress and the Administration ensures that the President’s 2017...more
On February 2, 2016, the Third Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a long-running SOX whistleblower suit filed by Jeffrey Wiest, a former accounts payable manager for Tyco Electronics. The decision is the first in which the...more
In Morton v. Vanderbilt Univ., 2016 WL 52439 (6th Cir. Jan. 5, 2016), the Sixth Circuit recently held that, for purposes of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (“WARN Act”), employment does not end at notice...more
The SEC released its Fiscal Year 2015 Annual Report (the “Report”) to Congress on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program on November 16, 2015. The Report analyzes the tips received over the last twelve months by the SEC’s...more
On September 9, 2015, Sean McKessy, Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower (OWB) spoke at Thomson Reuters’ 4th Annual Corporate Whistleblower Program in New York. With the standard disclaimer that his comments and...more
The ability to preserve privilege for highly sensitive internal investigations conducted at the direction of attorneys is alive and well. In a closely watched decision on the scope of the attorney-client privilege as applied...more
On August 4, 2015 the Securities and Exchange Commission issued interpretive guidance elaborating its view that the anti-retaliation provisions in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act apply equally to...more
8/7/2015
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Bank of America ,
Chevron Deference ,
Citigroup ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Internal Reporting ,
Popular ,
Rule 21F ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
TD Ameritrade ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On June 16, 2014, the SEC issued its first-ever charge of whistleblower retaliation under section 922 of the Dodd-Frank Act, charging a hedge fund advisor and its owner with “engaging in prohibited principal transactions and...more
Playboy Enterprises is suing its former defense counsel Sheppard Mullin after being hit with a $6 million jury verdict in a SOX whistleblower case, the highest jury award in a SOX case to date. In Zulfer v. Playboy...more
In a much-anticipated move, the SEC on April 1, 2015 commenced a cease-and-desist action against KBR (formerly Kellogg Brown & Root) alleging its confidentiality agreements violated Dodd-Frank’s whistleblower regulations. KBR...more