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New Jersey’s adult-use cannabis law does not provide aggrieved individuals with a private right of action, according to a recent decision from a New Jersey federal court. The Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act (“CREAMMA”), authorizes the legal sale and use...
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to a plaintiff’s attempts to seal a complaint seeking disability benefits, an administrator’s uncommunicated decision to discontinue its investigation into certain medical conditions, an administrator’s loss of the deferential standard of review for...
Attention employers -- some mandatory labor and employment law posters just received updates to reflect new laws and updates to existing laws. In April 2023, the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) gave the FLSA Poster a facelift, adding details of the recently-passed PUMP Act to its content...
Following a growing trend across the nation, on May 17, 2023, the Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill (previously approved by the Illinois Senate) that would make Illinois the 5th US state to require pay transparency in employee recruitment. The bill now heads to Governor Pritzker, who...
The Legislature’s Prohibition of Covenants Not to Compete On May 16, 2023, the Minnesota legislature issued a conference committee report on a bill that would render void and unenforceable “covenants not to compete” in agreements between employers and employees. Governor Walz is expected to sign the...
On May 1, 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (“OSHA”) has begun a National Emphasis Program (“NEP”) to prevent workplace falls, effective immediately. The NEP focuses on reducing fall-related injuries and fatalities for people...
This month’s Friday Five explores two recent decisions that discuss limitations on benefits when both physical disability and disability arising from mental illness are alleged, whether remand of a claim by the court constitutes a new appeal or a continuation of the previous appeal, whether an order...
This month’s Friday Five explores recent decisions that reflect the precise nature of rules and definitions in the context of ERISA claims. For example, effective dates of CFR code provisions and contractually defined limitation periods can draw specific points on the timeline of a case. Similarly...
New Guidance for Employers on Severance/Separation Agreements The National Labor Relations Board’s recent McLaren Macomb decision, discussed here, regarding the lawfulness of confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions in severance agreements, left several unanswered questions. NLRB General...
The continued efforts of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to roll back pro-employer rulings issued during the Trump Administration took a big jump forward recently when the Board effectively barred the use of certain types of confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions in severance...
This month's Friday Five covers cases relating to issue preclusion, coverage where the policy terms are inconsistent with the parties’ behavior, application of the abuse of discretion standard of review, applicability of a waiver of premium provision and compliance with a mandatory appeals process...
Last week, in Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt, the Supreme Court reminded employers that high-earning professionals are only exempt from overtime under the FLSA if they are paid on a salary basis. The case concerned Michael Hewitt, an oil rig worker who earned over $200,000 annually...
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to potential impacts of COVID-19, full and fair review of the claim file, an attempt to use an insurer’s internal policy against itself, and a “second bite at the apple” by amending a complaint for denial of benefits to include a claim for breach of...
After nearly three years of waiting and speculation, the amended New Jersey WARN Act that was first signed into law in January 2020, will finally become effective on April 10, 2023. The amended New Jersey WARN Act, also known as the Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act (...
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 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...