Posted May 3, 2018 with Tags Paid Sick Leave, Courtney Blanchard
Imagine a situation where a flight attendant wakes up in Las Vegas, flies to Washington, and catches a flight back to his or her home base in the Midwest. In Washington, there is mandatory paid sick leave law for employers …
Posted May 1, 2018
On April 30, 2018, the California Supreme Court issued a ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v Superior Court that will make classification of workers more complex and threaten the gig economy business model. The Court ruled that employers must now rely on the standard commonly referred to as the “ABC” test in order to determine whether workers are employees or independent contractors.
Posted April 30, 2018 with Tags Employment Attorney, Age discrimination
On April 26, 2018, the 7th Circuit ruled that job applicants—not just employees—can assert age discrimination claims arising from facially neutral hiring policies. In Kleber v. CareFusion Corporation, the court departed from recent rulings by other courts—most recently the 11th Circuit in Villareal v. R.J. Tobacco Co.—which have held that only employees can claim that a company’s activities or policies had a “disparate impact” due to age.
Posted April 16, 2018 with Tags noncompetes, anti-poaching laws
In January 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ) communicated that it would ramp-up criminal enforcement actions against companies that have no-poaching agreements, which in past years have been seen by the DOJ as a hall-pass allowing employers to avoid competing for workers, stifle demand in a market, and keep wages lower. A recent settlement with three employers, however, has reinforced the notion that not all no-poaching agreements are the same and helped define which kinds of no-poaching agreements may or may not lead to civil or criminal liability.
Posted April 11, 2018 with Tags Pay equity laws, Wage and Hour
The Ninth Circuit ruled that employers may not consider a new employee’s prior salary when setting his or her pay, either on its own or with other factors such as years of experience. The Court ruled that allowing employers to rely on prior salaries is incompatible with the broad principal of the Equal Pay Act, which states that men and women should receive equal pay for work.
Posted April 4, 2018 with Tags Minnesota Tip-Pooling
Joel O'Malley's article, "What makes Minnesota tip-pooling laws unique*," was published on Minnesota Lawyer. In the article, Joel outlines the complex laws leading to the large settlement Surly Brewing Co. recently paid in the tip-pooling lawsuit.
Posted March 8, 2018
On March 6, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced a new pilot program for federal wage-and-hour compliance. The Paid Audit Independent Determination (PAID) Program offers employers the opportunity to self-audit their pay practices, resolve any violations, and obtain releases from those claims from employees.
Posted March 2, 2018 with Tags Cort Sylvester
Although asbestos has been a known carcinogen leading to mesothelioma and other conditions for decades, it has existed in multiple places, forms and concentrations, and scientists are unable to track the onset of such diseases to a specific root cause. Consequently, plaintiff lawyers often bring lawsuits against multiple parties and once and have succeeded in their attempts to bring these cases to trial by only needing to prove some degree of exposure to any given product containing asbestos, not that the certain product led to their injury, a theory called cumulative exposure.
Posted February 16, 2018 with Tags Paid Sick Leave, Courtney Blanchard, Paid Sick and Safe Leave
In the early hours of February 16, 2018, Austin, Texas, became the first Southern city to pass a paid sick and safe leave law. The final version is slated to go into effect on October 1, 2018, for most employers, although employers with five or fewer employees have a reprieve with an October 1, 2020, effective date. Opponents are already discussing potential preemption legislation, and so it remains to be seen whether the ordinance will go into effect or for how long.
Posted February 13, 2018
On January 22, a lawsuit was filed in in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in which the plaintiff accused General Motors of negligence stemming from an accident where a vehicle deploying self-driving technology collided with …
Posted January 22, 2018
Citing a lack of federal movement on labor and employment issues, many states and localities are passing laws that impact issues such as minimum wage, paid sick leave and predictive scheduling.
Posted January 22, 2018 with Tags Courtney Blanchard, Predictive scheduling
Nilan Johnson Lewis labor and employment attorney Courtney Blanchard outlines predictive scheduling.
Posted December 21, 2017
The California legislature and governor have had another busy year adding new laws and regulations for California employers. The changes hit virtually every aspect of the employment relationship – including applications, leaves of absence, wage-and-hour, discrimination, retaliation, immigration, and workplace notice requirements. Many new laws expand existing requirements to a broader array of employers. Here are the top ten laws requiring immediate attention for employers to comply.
Posted December 15, 2017 with Tags Facebook ad practices
Plaintiffs’ lawyers currently are threatening employers that recruit new employees via social platforms—Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.—with age discrimination class action lawsuits. The plaintiffs’ lawyers aggressively demand an immediate response to their letter, production of information related to the online recruitment efforts, and a quick resolution of their alleged claims (i.e., pay a substantial settlement). Class-wide liability, were the claims to be successful, could be substantial, so this issue warrants immediate attention even if you have not yet been threatened with litigation. We have analyzed the possible legal claims and have developed a method to assess an employer’s potential liability.
Posted December 14, 2017
On Dec. 12, President Trump reinstated the requirement for recreational drone users to register their drones that weigh between 0.55 and 55 pounds, a rule attached to the wide-reaching National Defense Authorization Act.
Posted December 13, 2017 with Tags Mark Girouard, Pay equity
Heightened by an increase in social activism and the #metoo movement, many publically traded companies – especially those in the technology and retail sectors – may find themselves facing a New Year’s resolution they’d rather not have in 2018: a shareholder resolution demanding public disclosure of detailed information about gender pay differences.
Posted November 27, 2017
Outside-the-box-thinking could give private foundations a reason to be excited about an obscure provision in the tax bills passed by the House and currently pending in the Senate.
Posted November 20, 2017 with Tags Minnesota Tip-Pooling, Minnesota Tip Statute
Super Bowl LII at U.S. Bank Stadium presents a great opportunity for Minneapolis restaurateurs to generate significant income from parties hosted before and during the big game. With that opportunity, though, comes the challenge of complying with Minnesota’s unique tip-pooling statute—unlike federal laws and those of other states—and avoiding the potential for greater liability. Restaurants planning Super Bowl parties should prepare now to meet the law’s requirements and avoid litigation after the Super Bowl LII victor is crowned.
Posted October 27, 2017 with Tags Mark Girouard, pre-employment testing, pre-employment selection
By now, most large employers have become accustomed to using “big data” to help them conduct business. It is little wonder, then, that many employers want to leverage big data when making decisions about what is their most valuable asset: their employees.
Posted October 26, 2017
At least five drone programs will be selected to test out an innovative public-private integration because of a memorandum signed by President Trump this week to speed up the use of drones for commercial purposes.
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