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Last year, safety compliance in the cannabis industry took on a new dimension when the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited production company Life Essence Inc, d/b/a Trulieve (Trulieve) for an employee’s fatal asthma attack following workplace exposure to ground...
As expected, Governor Hochul recently signed a new pay transparency law ( S.9427-A/A.10477) that will impact nearly every job posting in the state of New York. Like New York City’s pay transparency law that went into effect last year (which WISE blogged about here), employers and recruiting agencies...
On January 5, 2023, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“ NPRM”), seeking comments on a proposed rule that would effectively ban the use of non-compete agreements, nationwide. In a typical non-compete agreement, employees agree not to work for a...
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to discovery in ERISA benefits cases, an appellate court strictly interpreting ERISA regulatory deadlines, a district court authorizing an ERISA breach of fiduciary duty claim based on alleged misrepresentations from an employer, another district court...
New protections from discrimination are set to become a reality in Pennsylvania. On December 8, 2022, Pennsylvania’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission approved a proposed regulation from the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) amending the definitions of sex, religious creed, and...
Last week was a busy one for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The agency came out with four significant decisions that either expanded or protected employee rights on issues such as monetary remedies, the right to organize, and the right to protest. Below, we briefly summarize the...
Background Weeks of phone and text banks, TV and radio advertisements, thousands of door-to-door campaigners, as well as strong pro-labor lobbying resulted in the recent passage of the Illinois Workers’ Rights Amendment. On November 8, 2022, the Workers’ Rights Amendment (also known as Section 25 of...
On December 7, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Speak Out Act (the “Act”), which prevents courts from enforcing certain non-disclosure and non-disparagement clauses related to claims of sexual assault or harassment. The Act, which was originally sponsored by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in...
On November 29, 2022, the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division issued an opinion in Zuluga v. Altice USA stating a former employee must arbitrate her sexual harassment claims that arose in October 2021. In doing so, the appellate panel recognized that the Ending Forced Arbitration of...
This month’s Friday Five explores recent decisions that illustrate the importance of the administrative record built by a claims administrator, and the impact that the depth and thoroughness of the record will have on litigation over claims decisions. Whether reviewing claims under the de novo...
Effective November 16, 2022, New Jersey will impose additional requirements on both the buyer and seller when a ‘health care entity’ undergoes a change in control. In accordance with S315, which was enacted on August 18, 2021, the State will require the selling health care employer entity to provide...
The New York Labor Law has been amended to clarify that workers may not be punished or disciplined for taking legally protected absences. Under Section 215 of the Labor Law, employers are prohibited from retaliating against workers for enumerated reasons, including instituting certain legal...
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to augmentation of the administrative record following new rationales, attempted alternative ERISA causes of action, untimely ERISA claims, plans governed by ERISA even in the absence of a written plan document, and the limited weight given to residual...
From coast to coast, new states are passing laws that require employers to implement clear pay transparency policies, such as providing specific salary ranges in their job postings. These laws are an expansion of the federal Equal Pay Act – which requires equal pay for equal work among similarly...
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to the interpretation of time periods for claims under life insurance and disability plans, a situation where three separate administrators handled a disability benefits claim (but came to different decisions), the Eleventh Circuit’s parsing of...
By now, business owners and their counsel have become increasingly aware of the high volume of lawsuits filed across the country alleging that commercial websites violate Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and similar state and local laws, for failing to make their websites...
On September 9, 2022, the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (the “Commission”) issued guidance for employers on how to evaluate suspected cannabis impairment in the workplace. Although the guidance leaves some questions unanswered, it should provide some comfort to employers operating in an...
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to interpretation of ambiguous policy terms, evaluation of claimant’s expert witness, inclusion of law firms as appropriate parties from whom plan administrators may seek equitable relief, transfer of cases from the claimant’s choice of venue, and...
This month’s Friday Five addresses cases considering: (1) whether monetary relief in the amount of lost benefits is an available remedy for breach of fiduciary duty; (2) the validity of an ex-spouse’s beneficiary designation that contradicts a subsequent divorce decree; (3) if waiver of a pre...
For the second time in a two-year span, the D.C. City Council voted in favor of largely banning non-compete agreements within the District. As we wrote in May 2021, the D.C. City Council initially passed the Ban on Non-Compete Agreements Amendment Act of 2020 (the “Act”), which would have imposed...