Labor & Employment Law Update

The NLRB has, once again, struck down work rules the Board deemed overly broad. This time, the employer is Whole Foods Market, and the rules at issue essentially barred employees from photographing or making audio or video recordings during working hours—that is, when employees were being paid to do their assigned work. These rules did not apply while employees were on break.

Readers may remember that the NLRB’s rationale for striking down various employer policies in recent years has hinged on protecting employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act to engage in ...

On January 6, 2017, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) twitter account confirmed the federal agency’s interest in “gig economy” workers. “Gig economy” workers refer to individuals working in modern, flexible employment structures that contract with an employer for a short-term project or on a job-by-job basis, rather than working in traditional, long-term relationships with a single employer. For example, gig economy workers generally reference temporary workers, freelancers, independent contractors, and staffing ...

The EEOC’s new Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP) highlights its enforcement priorities and alerts employers to areas most likely to attract the EEOC’s investigative eye, including the types of charges the EEOC is most likely to litigate on a complainant’s behalf.

The EEOC recognizes that employment law is continuously developing and that related practices are continuously evolving.  As a result, this SEP is intended to reflect current issues. This new four year SEP (which remains in effect until superseded, modified or withdrawn by vote of a majority of members of the ...

Almost as certain as death and taxes is the fact that technology is constantly changing. You regularly download windows updates and security patches. You regularly download operating system updates for your mobile phone and tablets. But, how often do you review your company’s data retention and email policies?

Record retention policies are incredibly specific to each business. A template policy seldom, if ever, does the job. Many businesses are subject to industry-specific record keeping obligations and, even with a single business, various departments have different ...

A recent 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals decision, Gracia v. Sigmatron, International, Inc., Case No. 15-3311, is a good reminder to employers to be careful in taking adverse action against an employee who recently engaged in statutorily protected activity. In Gracia, a longtime employee, who had complained of sexual harassment by her supervisor and filed a charge of sex discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), was fired two weeks later for allegedly allowing a subordinate to make a production error on a customer order.  The employee sued her ...

Intermittent FMLA leave can be a source of frustration for employers even when it is used appropriately because it complicates staffing and planning and interrupts business operations. But when an employee’s use of intermittent leave seems just too convenient (e.g., when it is regularly used on Fridays and Mondays to make long weekends), employers naturally grow suspicious.

The recent Sharif v. United Airlines, Inc., decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit confirms that if an employer is able to prove intermittent FMLA abuse by conducting a prompt and ...

As we previously reported, on 11/22/2016, Judge Amos Mazzant (E.D. Texas) granted a preliminary injunction that halted the 12/1/2016 implementation of the DOL’s Final Overtime Rule, which would have more-than-doubled the minimum salary level for executive/administrative/professional exempt employees.

On 12/1/2016, the U.S. DOL filed a notice of appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, indicating that it strongly believes that the DOL followed all required administrative processes, and there is no reason to delay implementation of the Final Rule.

This fight is not ...

OSHA previously delayed enforcement of its controversial post-accident drug testing and safety incentive rules until December 1, 2016. OSHA agreed to the delay at the request of a federal Judge who was considering a lawsuit requesting injunctive relief to prevent the new rules from going into effect. This week, the Judge issued a decision denying the request for injunctive relief. In light of the decision, OSHA announced it intends to begin enforcement of the new rules on December 1, 2016.

As a reminder, this injunction was filed because during the rulemaking process, OSHA ...

As we previously reported, last week on 11/22/2016, US District Judge Amos Mazzant blocked the 12/1/2016 implementation of the DOL Final Overtime Rule when he issued a preliminary injunction in favor of the plaintiffs (21 States and over 50 business organizations) in litigation pending in the Eastern District of Texas.

THE FINAL RULE

The Final Rule, announced on 5/23/2016, would increase the minimum salary level for exempt employees from $455 per week ($23,660 annually) to $913 per week ($47,476 annually) (see our prior article for more information).  Notably, there was no ...

On November 22, 2016, a Texas federal district court granted a nationwide preliminary injunction against the U.S. Department of Labor’s overtime rule. State of Nevada v. U.S. Dept. of Labor, No. 4:16-cv-00731-ALM (E.D. Tex. 11/22/2016).

This injunction halted the rule’s December 1, 2016 implementation that would have more-than-doubled the salary level to $913 per week for overtime-exempt executive, administrative, and professional white collar workers.

We will provide additional details on what this preliminary injunction means for employers after the ...