On April 9, 2022, New York passed a $20 billion, multi-year healthcare investment in the FY 2023 State Budget. According to Governor Kathy Hochul, the budget includes “historic investments that will rebuild the health care...more
Executive Summary: The New York Department of Labor (NYDOL) announced on May 27, 2021, that employees in New York must be permitted to use sick leave under the New York Paid Sick Leave Law to recover from any side effects...more
Executive Summary: On April 27, 2021, a sharply divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, covering New York, Vermont, and Connecticut, held that in Fair Labor Standards Act Overtime cases (FLSA), to...more
Executive Summary: On March 12, 2021, New York State enacted an amendment to the New York Labor Law and the New York Civil Service Law, which provides for four hours of paid leave time, per injection, to obtain a COVID-19...more
3/18/2021
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Infectious Diseases ,
New Legislation ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Vaccinations ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Safety
On September 28, 2020, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law amendments to the New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA). The amendments were enacted with the chief purpose of aligning ESSTA with the...more
On March 17, 2020, New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced an agreement with the state legislature on a bill guaranteeing unpaid and paid sick leave and job protection for individuals who have been quarantined as a...more
3/18/2020
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Emergency Response ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Public Health ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Sick Leave ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
Yesterday the New York Court of Appeals issued its long-awaited decision on 24-hour shift home health aides who work as “sleep-in” workers....more
3/27/2019
/ Appeals ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Domestic Workers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Home Health Agencies ,
Home Health Care ,
Home Healthcare Workers ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued its proposed overtime regulations to replace the Obama administration’s (enjoined) overtime rule....more
On February 6, 2018, a New York federal judge rejected a challenge to a New York City law requiring fast-food businesses to, upon request of their employees, forward voluntary deductions from employee paychecks to nonprofits....more
2/14/2019
/ Fast-Food Industry ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Freedom of Association ,
LMRA ,
NLRA ,
Nonprofits ,
Payroll Deductions ,
Preemption ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Restaurant Industry ,
State and Local Government ,
Wage and Hour
Until last week, no New York court had ruled on the question whether a fiscal intermediary (FI) participating in New York’s consumer directed personal assistant program (CDPAP) was a joint employer of a consumer’s personal...more
Over the past several years, both New York State and New York City have enacted significant new employment and labor laws. This Update summarizes the key laws you should be following and the penalties for violations.
...more
12/17/2018
/ Cooperative Dialogue ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Chance Act ,
Freelance Isn't Free Act (FIFA) ,
Local Ordinance ,
Minimum Salary ,
Minimum Wage ,
Safe Leave ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Sick Leave ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Temporary Employees ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Theft Prevention Act ,
Work Schedules
Class action attorneys recently filed a first-of-its-kind class action against Edison Home Health Care (“Edison”) and Preferred Home Care of New York (“Preferred”) alleging that the home care agencies used a “captive”...more
12/12/2018
/ Breach of Duty ,
Captive Insurance Company ,
Class Action ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Health Insurance ,
Home Health Agencies ,
Home Health Care ,
Personal Liability ,
Risk Management ,
Wage and Hour
The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has announced it will no longer apply the “80/20 rule” to tipped employees, and will no longer require employers to pay the full minimum wage for time spent by a tipped...more
11/13/2018
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Deregulation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Food Service Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Minimum Wage ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
On September 18, 2018, a year after a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Marsh v. J. Alexander’s LLC, 869 F.3d 1108, a larger en banc panel of the court has...more
10/4/2018
/ Appeals ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Dismissals ,
Food Service Workers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Job Descriptions ,
Minimum Wage ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wages
Audits of compliance with the Wage Parity Act ("WPA") are on the rise. The NYS Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Unit, Medicaid Inspector General ("OMIG"), and Department of Labor ("DOL") are all auditing home care agencies....more
Last week, in two long-awaited decisions, the New York State Appellate Division, Second Department ruled that home care workers who worked 24-hour shifts, commonly referred to as “live-in” shifts, were required to be paid for...more
Tuesday, April 11, 2017, the First Department, Appellate Division of the NYS Supreme Court held that 24-hour case home care workers must be paid for all 24 hours if they are “nonresidential,” that is, they do not exclusively...more
In a case with far reaching implications, Cowell v. Utopia Home Care, Inc., 2:14-cv-00736-LDW-SIL, Magistrate Judge Steven Locke of the Eastern District of New York (covering Brooklyn, Queens and Long island) ruled that...more
8/23/2016
/ Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Collective Actions ,
Conditional Certification ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Domestic Workers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Home Health Care ,
Home Healthcare Workers ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour