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Last week, the Supreme Court issued two significant decisions impacting employers nationwide. The Court’s holding in Groff v. DeJoy requires employers to grant religious accommodations to employees, unless such accommodations would cause substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of the...
New York is on the brink of joining the growing list of states and federal agencies that disfavor or outright ban non-compete agreements. On June 20, 2023, the New York legislature passed a bill that would prohibit employers in the state from using non-compete agreements. The bill now awaits final...
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...
Introduction The Supreme Court of the United States recently clarified the scope of appellate review over "purely legal" issues in cases where no post-trial motions were filed prior to an appeal. In Dupree v. Younger, No. 22-210, the Court unanimously reversed a decision of the United States Court...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
On December 15, 2022, the National Labor Relations Board’s Los Angeles regional office determined that an unfair labor practice charge (ULP) alleging that student-athletes should be classified as employees has “merit.” The National College Players Association filed the ULP in February 2022 against...