Labor & Employment Law Update

We previously reported that in 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) began issuing opinion letters again after nearly a decade of silence. While the legislature makes laws, the consequences of presidential elections flow into the executive agencies charged with administering and enforcing the laws. 

As of the close of 2018, the DOL had issued more than 30 new opinion letters involving the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and those letters addressed a variety of topics including minimum wage and overtime for employees paid varying ...

Flu season is here and offers an opportune time to discuss the tricky intersection between the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and employers’ efforts to require mandatory vaccinations and health screenings for employees.  Some employers, especially those in the health care field who provide direct services to patients, require employees to pass a health screening or receive certain vaccinations either upon hire or at other periodic intervals. Employers should ensure that these efforts comply with the ADA. 

The ADA allows certain health screenings and inquiries ...

Early in the New Year we often see employees switching jobs, which can trigger disputes over restrictive covenants in their employment agreements. As 2018 draws to a close, here are some things to keep in mind to protect your company, its customers, and its information against unfair competition from departing employees:

Assume the worst. We tend to assume people will comply with their contractual obligations. Employers should not assume a departing employee will comply with a restrictive covenant. Some employees forget they even have an employment agreement. Some think the ...

On Friday, December 14th, a U.S. District Court judge in the Northern District of Texas issued a ruling in Texas, et al., v. United States of America declaring the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA) unconstitutional, based on the requirement that individuals must buy health insurance or face a tax penalty. Previously, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ACA individual mandate as constitutional under Congress’s authority to tax Americans. But the Texas judge held that because the tax bill passed by Congress in December 2017 reduced the individual mandate penalty to zero, it is no longer ...

Around the holiday season, many employees take time off and businesses close down. Additionally, some businesses pay out bonuses to employees around the holiday season. All of these scenarios can impact overtime pay for non-exempt employees.

CLOSURE OF BUSINESS

Non-Exempt Employees

Non-exempt employees generally (exceptions follow) only need to be paid for hours they actually work – and not for holidays or weather-related office closings and are entitled to overtime for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. For example:

1. Non-exempt employees do not need to be paid for New Year’s ...

When was the last time you conducted an HR audit for your organization?

We’re all busy and get distracted easily. Often times HR considers a thorough review of the Employee Handbook is enough to ensure all is well from a legal compliance perspective as to personnel policies and practices. Not quite. A closer examination of an employer’s forms, contracts, procedures, practices and actual day-to-day management is essential. In other words, a deeper dive into an organization’s HR-universe is necessary these days. In a world of increased workplace regulation and litigation ...

Exit interviews have been a mainstay of the HR world for years.  They are most often viewed as a means of obtaining insights into employee satisfaction related issues, such as compensation, benefits and work environment.  However, such interviews are a valuable component of a compliance program designed to prevent, detect and stop potential or existing fraudulent or otherwise illegal conduct.  This is especially true in the health care industry.

Why health care?  The media has regular accounts of various types of health care providers being investigated or sued under the False Claims ...

The Supreme Court recently heard arguments on an issue which will have lasting implications on the arbitrability of claims between employers and certain independent contractors. Where the Court lands will have significant impact on employers moving forward, not only with regard to the form of contracts employers offer, but also with regard to how they classify workers in the transportation field.

Currently, the Federal Arbitration Act (the “FAA”) authorizes transportation employers to include mandatory arbitration provisions in employment contracts, which can require ...

The IRS has issued proposed regulations on hardship distributions under section 401(k) and 403(b) plans (“Proposed Regulations”), addressing issues raised by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (“Budget Act”) and the 2018 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“Tax Act”). Plan sponsors need to consider administrative and plan amendment changes promptly.

There are two requirements for a permissible hardship distribution:

• The withdrawal must be made due to an immediate and heavy financial need; and
• The amount of the withdrawal must be limited to the amount necessary to satisfy that ...

In October of 2017, we first reported on the filing of a class action suit by a group of Chicago-area employees where plaintiffs alleged that their employer’s use of worker fingerprints for time-tracking purposes violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).  Specifically, the employees claimed that their employer failed to properly inform them in writing of the specific purpose for which their fingerprints were being collected and the length of time their fingerprints would be stored. Plaintiffs also claimed the employer failed to obtain written ...