Quick Hits Tropical Storm Helene is expected to make landfall in Florida as a major hurricane as early as September 26, 2024. Governor Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency for sixty-one counties across the state. Employers may want to consider their obligations to protect workers and maintain a…

Quick Hits The Michigan Supreme Court issued an order mandating specific wage increases and gradually eliminating the tip credit by 2030. The new wage and tip credit adjustments take effect on February 21, 2025. The Michigan Legislature has introduced a bill that, if enacted, will scale back the scheduled wage…

Quick Hits Effective September 22, 2024, Law 25 provides employees and consumers in Québec in both the public and private sectors with the right to data portability. The purpose of this new right is to allow individuals to access their data and transfer it to another legally authorized organization of…

Quick Hits If Governor Newsom signs SB 1100, FEHA will prohibit employers from requiring job applicants to have a driver’s license, with limited exceptions. California already makes it a violation for an employer or other entity to discriminate against individuals with driver’s licenses issued to undocumented workers. SB 1100 would…

Quick Hits In 2018, in-store sales consultants, who are predominantly female, argued that their work was of equal value to Next’s predominantly male warehouse-based workers. Next argued that the difference in pay rates was in response to market forces driven by the wider labour market. The Employment Tribunal ruled that…

Quick Hits Crafting effective multistate separation agreements can be challenging for employers amid an increasing number of state-specific requirements and restrictions. Employers may want to consider updating their template release agreements, confirming their agreements state sufficient and proper consideration for employees to release claims, and whether their separation agreements properly…

Quick Hits January 1, 2025, is the start date for payroll withholdings and submission of quarterly wage reports under the Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave Program. Employers may not apply for private plan substitutions until after April 1, 2025, and will be responsible for payroll contributions until their plans…

Quick Hits New Jersey’s labor department released responses to comments on its proposed TWBR regulations published last year. Following a review of the comments, the regulations appear to be moving forward without substantial changes. The final regulations are expected to be adopted and published on September 16, 2024. On August…

Quick Hits Germany’s Federal Labor Court held that posting a termination letter in a mailbox constitutes receipt as soon as the subsequent removal is expected, which the court said would be the day of posting. Employers that use registered mail for delivering employment termination notices may want to obtain proof…

Quick Hits The First Amendment generally applies to governmental actors, but private employers still must comply with the NLRA, which protects employees’ right to engage in concerted activity related to their working conditions. Several states, including California, Connecticut, Colorado, and New York, provide additional protections for speech, off-duty conduct, and…

Quick Hits In answering a question certified from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that under Massachusetts law, certain business-to-business relationships in which franchisees have chosen to operate their independent businesses using a business format franchise, the franchisees are not employees…

Quick Hits A recent decision from the NLRB found that consent orders undermine the NLRB general counsel’s prosecutorial authority and fail to facilitate a mutual resolution of labor disputes. For now, the NLRB will no longer accept consent orders, which are settlement terms unilaterally proposed by a respondent (typically an…

Quick Hits The right to switch off would give workers the right to not have to engage with work correspondence (including emails, phone calls, and work-based messaging services) outside their contracted working hours. This right is intended to give “workers and employers the opportunity to have constructive conversations and work…

Quick Hits On September 4, 2024, Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the New York Retail Worker Safety Act, a comprehensive measure intended to increase worker safety and address the hazard of workplace violence in retail settings. The act, which applies to retail employers with at least ten employees and…

Quick Hits California’s SB 399 would limit an employer’s ability to communicate with employees regarding political or religious matters during mandatory meetings. The bill’s definition of “political matters” includes matters relating to union organizing. The act provides employees with a private right of action that includes punitive damages. If signed…

Quick Hits A federal district court in New Jersey denied a motion to partially enjoin the New Jersey Temporary Workers Bill of Rights, which seeks to equalize pay for temporary workers to that of permanent workers. The court ruled that while the plaintiffs have the potential to ultimately succeed on…

Some laid-off workers are becoming social media influencers, telling their layoff stories to thousands of followers and outsiders. Former employees generally are not prohibited from criticizing their former employer on social media if their comments are true and not defamatory. To protect their brand and public image, companies can offer…

To technically comply with new return-to-office requirements, some workers are entering their physical offices, clocking in, and leaving just a few hours later. To understand how frequently this is occurring, employers are permitted to use technology to verify on-site attendance and duration of attendance. Corporate leaders and managers can align…

Quick Hits Illinois’s new AI regulations under HB 3773 take effect on January 1, 2026, giving employers a limited window to prepare for compliance. The law broadly defines “artificial intelligence” to include any machine-based system that generates outputs influencing employment decisions, with no specific exemptions provided. Employers must provide notice…

Quick Hits Voter turnout for the November 2024 elections is expected to be high, meaning many employees will be taking time off to exercise their right to vote. Most states require employers to provide unpaid leave to vote or do not have specific requirements, while some states require paid leave.…

Quick Hits Many state and federal laws apply to seasonal workers the same way they do to full-time, year-round employees. These include antidiscrimination, antiharassment, wage-and-hour, workplace safety, and child-labor laws. About half of the states raised their minimum wage for 2024, which could impact many seasonal workers. Highlighting timekeeping practices…

Quick Hits On July 3, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas had granted a limited preliminary injunction staying enforcement of the FTC’s final rule prohibiting non-compete clauses, but only as to the parties in the case, pending a final ruling on the merits. On August…

Quick Hits The Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that for claims subject to the “continuing violation doctrine,” such as hostile work environment claims, accrual occurs with each new act that is part of the ongoing pattern of misconduct. Because the plaintiff alleged retaliatory acts occurring after March 3, 2022,…

Quick Hits At least six federal courts have issued injunctions barring enforcement of the U.S. Department of Education’s 2024 Title IX rule, which applies to complaints of sex discrimination occurring on or after August 1, 2024. Many of the injunctions lack clarity as to which institutions are covered. The Department…

Quick Hits A federal district court rejected challenges to a Florida law that makes it more difficult for public-sector teachers unions to collect dues and recertify. The court held that the Florida Legislature’s changes did not impair the validity, construction, or enforcement of collective bargaining contracts. The court left remaining…

Quick Hits At least six federal courts have issued injunctions barring enforcement of the U.S. Department of Education’s 2024 Title IX rule, which applies to complaints of sex discrimination occurring on or after August 1, 2024. Many of the injunctions lack clarity as to which institutions are covered. The Department…

Quick Hits Texas reached a $1.4 billion settlement with a social media company over technology that allegedly unlawfully captured the facial geometry of millions of users in the state. The settlement comes after a $650 million settlement for similar claims under Illinois law in 2021. The settlements point to a…

Quick Hits Effective January 1, 2025, all employers that have thirty or more employees in Minnesota will be required to provide salary ranges and a general description of benefits in job postings—seemingly, including Minnesota recruiting and staffing companies seeking workers to work for employers in other states. The law is…

Quick Hits In Perez v. Barrick Goldstrike Mines, Inc., the Ninth Circuit joined the Second, Fourth, Sixth, and Eighth Circuits in holding that an employer’s right to obtain a second opinion is permissive, not mandatory, under the FMLA. A jury may consider an employer’s nonmedical evidence in determining whether an…

Quick Hits On July 31, 2024, Governor Maura Healey signed into law legislation requiring Massachusetts employers with twenty-five or more employees to disclose pay ranges. Employers with one hundred or more employees and subject to EEO-1 reporting obligations will be required to report aggregated wage data by race, ethnicity, sex,…

Quick Hits OFCCP updated its guidance on protected veterans hiring obligations and affirmative action policies encouraging contractors to provide apprenticeship opportunities to protected veterans. OFCCP said protected veterans must be provided equal opportunity to participate in apprenticeship opportunities and that providing such opportunities can help contractors meet their obligations to…

Quick Hits DHS recently added Environmental/Natural Resources Economics to the STEM list of qualifying fields of study. More F-1 nonimmigrant students will be eligible for the twenty-four-month extension of their post-completion OPT. The STEM Designated Degree Program List is “a complete list of fields of study that DHS considers to…

The first article in this series provided a general overview of the OSH Act and OSHA; the second article examined OSHA’s rulemaking process; the third article reviewed an employer’s duty to comply with standards; the fourth article discussed the general duty clause; the fifth article addressed OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements; the…

Quick Hits The 2024 VETS-4212 reporting platform will open on August 1, 2024. All 2024 VETS-4212 filings are due by September 30, 2024. Federal contractors and subcontractors with a single covered contact of $150,000 or more are required to file VETS-4212 reports. The same data can be used for both…

Quick Hits Cal/OSHA released a revised discussion draft of a proposed workplace violence prevention standard for general industry (non-healthcare settings). The draft proposal includes definitions of engineering controls and work practice controls, and it would require employers to communicate with “authorized employee representatives” and employees regarding workplace violence matters. Comments…

Quick Hits The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida recently upheld an injunction against part of Florida’s Individual Freedom Act, also known as the Stop WOKE Act, which regulated the types of content that employers could include in employee training. The court found that a section of…

Quick Hits Claudia Sheinbaum—the first woman to be elected president of Mexico—will begin her term of office on October 1, 2024. President-elect Sheinbaum has appointed Marath Baruch Bolaños Lopez to be Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare and a member of her cabinet. President-elect Sheinbaum’s labor and employment agenda includes,…

Quick Hits On July 31, 2024, the Michigan Supreme Court, in a 4–3 decision, ruled that the Michigan Legislature violated the Michigan Constitution in 2018 by adopting voter-initiated laws and later amending the previously adopted laws in the same legislative session. The high court’s ruling reinstates the 2018 voter-initiated versions…

Quick Hits Louisiana’s statute of limitations for employment-related tort actions has been doubled to two years from the day an injury or damage is sustained. The law took effect on July 1, 2024, and is prospective only. Employers must provide breaks to workers under sixteen years of age whose shifts…

Quick Hits The King’s Speech of 17 July 2024 detailed the UK government’s upcoming priorities and proposals. This includes the Employment Rights Bill and draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill. Among the proposed policies were several significant employment-related bills, and we have set out below the key proposals. If enacted,…