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It is a new year, and there are new requirements in New York and on the federal level for employers to accommodate employees expressing milk following the birth of a child. New York In December, New York passed a law that imposes new obligations on employers providing lactation accommodations. The...
With a passing vote from both the Illinois House and Senate on January 10, 2023, the new “Paid Leave for All Workers Act” is primed to become a new law guaranteeing almost all Illinois workers paid leave for any reason. Also known as SB 208 Amendment 4, the bill is expected to be signed into law by...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Washington, D.C.’s (D.C. or the District) Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) is now accepting applications for three new alcohol licenses that were created by the Reopen Washington D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration Amendment Act of 2022 . We detail each of these...
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...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) today published in the Federal Register a proposed rule that, if finalized, would update the standards that food products must meet in order to be labeled as “healthy.” Per FDA, the proposed rule would “align the definition of ‘healthy’ with...
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...
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...
This is a summer when many employees (and employers) may be done with COVID-19, but the virus is not done with us. While government mandates have virtually disappeared, the expected surge of omicron variants during 2022, and the resulting increase in absenteeism due to illness and quarantine...
On May 13, 2022, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed Senate Bill 3146, amending the Illinois “One Day Rest in Seven” Act into law. Shortly after, Governor Pritzker signed into law Senate Bill 3120, the Family Bereavement Leave Act, which amends the Child Bereavement Leave Act. Illinois employers should be...