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
Chalk this round up to the unions. In a pair of decisions issued last week, a Seattle federal judge ruled that Seattle’s January 2016 Ordinance that seeks to allow for-hire drivers to form unions and collectively bargain with...more
8/30/2017
/ Appeals ,
Chamber of Commerce ,
Corporate Counsel ,
DPPA ,
Drivers ,
First Amendment ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Local Ordinance ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Ridesharing ,
Union Organizers ,
Unions
In a ruling sure to leave businesses and gig economy companies crying foul, the National Labor Relations Board concluded that workers producing electronic video display content for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves were...more
8/30/2017
/ Basketball ,
Classification ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
NBA ,
NLRB ,
Popular ,
Union Organizers
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
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While it always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, the last few months have seen an unprecedented number of changes. June 2017 was no different, with...more
7/7/2017
/ Administrative Interpretation ,
Advocate Health Care v Stapleton ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Church Plans ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Discrimination ,
Electronic Records ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Harassment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Interlocutory Appeals ,
Joint Employers ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Microsoft v Baker ,
Minimum Salary ,
Misclassification ,
New Legislation ,
NLRB ,
Opinion Letter ,
OSHA ,
Over-Time ,
Popular ,
Public Accommodation ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Title III ,
Travel Ban ,
Trump v Hawaii ,
Trump v International Refugee Assistance Project ,
Uber ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Website Accessibility ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Back in October, we reported that there appeared to be the first crack in the wall when it came to classifying Uber drivers as employees instead of independent contractors. At that time, it was reported that the New York...more
6/20/2017
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Definition ,
Employees ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Sharing Economy ,
Uber ,
Unemployment Benefits
In what appears to be a first-of-its kind decision, the National Labor Relations Board recently determined that an employer committed an unfair labor practice when one of its managers asked a pointed question via text message...more
6/14/2017
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Interrogations ,
Leave of Absence ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Text Messages ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Union Elections ,
Unions
In a welcome development for employers, Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta announced today that the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) was immediately withdrawing guidance published during the Obama administration that had...more
6/8/2017
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Interpretive Opinions ,
Joint Employers ,
Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA) ,
Misclassification ,
NLRA ,
Obama Administration ,
Secretary of Labor ,
Trump Administration
A federal appellate court recently ruled that an employee’s request for 12 months of additional medical leave was not reasonable, and thereby upheld the dismissal of her Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuit against...more
5/26/2017
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Disability Leave ,
Dismissals ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Extensions ,
Interactive Process ,
Medical Leave ,
Reasonable Accommodation
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While it always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, the last few months have seen an unprecedented number of changes. April 2017 was another month...more
5/5/2017
/ Computer Programmers ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Drivers ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Facebook ,
Gig Economy ,
H-1B ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Immigration Reform ,
Independent Contractors ,
LGBTQ ,
Misclassification ,
NLRB ,
Obscenity ,
On-Demand Services ,
OSHA ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Salary/Wage History ,
SCOTUS ,
Secretary of Labor ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Sovereign Immunity ,
State Labor Laws ,
Subpoenas ,
Title VII ,
Tribal Employees ,
Trump Administration ,
Unions ,
USCIS ,
Young Lawyers
The state of Florida is about to enact first-of-its-kind legislation that will ensure most ride-sharing drivers are independent contractors and not employees, eliminating costly misclassification battles and providing a...more
In a ruling that could leave employers fuming and possibly cursing, a federal appellate court ruled that an employee who used a public Facebook page to curse out not just his boss, but also his boss’s mother and entire...more
4/25/2017
/ Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Facebook ,
Hiring & Firing ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Obscenity ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Reaffirmation ,
Social Media ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Union Elections ,
Unions
Ruling In Favor Of Independent Contractor Status Provides Boost To Gig Economy -
A federal appeals court in New York handed a massive victory to a car service enterprise yesterday, ruling that a group of workers...more
In a pair of sure-to-be controversial decisions, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals created a new and troubling standard to determine whether individuals should be considered “joint employees” of multiple entities. The new...more
3 Things To Know About Favorable Court Decision -
A federal appeals court upheld the termination of an employee who tried to blame her misconduct on her disability during the termination meeting itself. The court ruled...more
January 2017 is one of those rare months including a Friday the 13th, which might bring to mind a horror movie where a seemingly vanquished killer somehow rises to his feet – once again! – to wreak havoc on his stunned...more
Reverse psychology isn’t the only explanation for the title of this article (although, if you’ve made it this far, it seems to have worked). No, another explanation is that 2016 was a very rough year for employers when it...more
12/12/2016
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Arbitration ,
Constructive Discharge ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
EEO-1 ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Gig Economy ,
Joint Employers ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
Persuader Rules ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Severance Agreements ,
Standing ,
Unions ,
White-Collar Exemptions
President-elect Donald Trump has announced that he would nominate Andrew Puzder to be the next Secretary of Labor. This Cabinet-level position heads the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL), one of the federal agencies that has...more
Earlier this week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced a new series of enforcement priorities on which it will focus over the next five years. By releasing its second-ever Strategic Enforcement Plan,...more
The New York Times reported yesterday that two Uber drivers were awarded unemployment benefits by the New York State Department of Labor. While the rulings were made earlier this summer in August and September, they had not...more
Lessons To Be Learned For Organizing Campaigns -
For the first time in American labor law history, a jury found that a union defamed and disparaged an employer while waging a bitter organizing campaign, costing the...more
2nd Circuit Refuses To Join Circuit Courts Siding With NLRB -
Employers can breathe a sigh of relief after the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals once again upheld the validity of class and collective action waivers in...more
The federal appeals court in New York just adopted a broad standard for employer liability as a consequence of discriminatory acts by their employees. This standard opens the door to a significant increase in claims being...more
Employers received their most bruising loss in the ongoing war involving class action waivers today, as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals became the second federal circuit to strike them down as illegal. When the 7th Circuit...more