On August 12, 2022, the Seventh Circuit held Wal-Mart Stores East LP did not discriminate against pregnant employees by failing to offer them light duty under its Temporary Alternate Duty policy (“TAD Policy”).
California enacted its Pay Data Reporting law in 2020 as a response to the Trump Administration ordering the EEOC to halt its annual pay data collection. The California law largely mirrored the federal law but instead required private employers who must file an annual Employer Information Report (EEO-1) pursuant to federal law to submit the annual data to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). It covered the same size of employers (100+ employees that already file a form EEO-1), required the same data disclosures, including the number of employees by race, ethnicity, and sex in specified job categories, and even allowed California employers to submit to the DFEH the same or substantially similar data they submitted to the EEOC in the EEO-1 form.
Continue Reading California Legislature Pushes for More Pay Transparency
On August 9, 2022, the Illinois Department of Labor (“IDOL”) held a hearing to field public comments on its draft regulations to implement the recent amendments to the Illinois Equal Pay Act (the “Act”). Our previous posts on the Act and the new requirements for Illinois employers are available here and here. The hour-long hearing allowed anyone interested in the draft regulations to make comments or submit written testimony.
Continue Reading Public Hearing on Proposed Rule Changes to the Illinois Equal Pay Act
In the UK, and most of Europe, employees have statutory rights to holiday leave and the question of holiday pay (and how to calculate it) has been a challenging issue for a long time. The Supreme Court in London has provided much-needed clarity by ruling in Harpur Trust v Brazel that holiday pay for part-year
Widening the split among circuit courts, the Third Circuit recently rejected attempts by two out-of-state employees to join an FLSA collective action as opt-in plaintiffs because their claims did not “arise out of or relate to” the defendant’s contacts with the state in which the case is pending.
Continue Reading The Third Circuit Decides “We’re (Not) Nationwide”
Employment practitioners will be waiting with bated breath now that the California Supreme Court has granted the defendant’s petition for review in Uber Technologies, Inc. v. Adolph, S274671. This is the second PAGA case California’s top court will review since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Viking River Cruises v. Moriana, which held that the Federal Arbitration Act requires courts to enforce parties’ arbitration agreements and preempts conflicting state laws that invalidate contractual waivers of the right to assert representative claims under PAGA. See our prior coverage of Viking River Cruises here.
Continue Reading California Supreme Court to Address Viking River Cruises
On July 12, 2022, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated its COVID-19 guidance for the workplace, most notably, its guidance regarding COVID-19 testing of employees. Prior to last week, the EEOC took the position that mandatory COVID-19 testing would always be “job related and consistent with business necessity” – a requirement for permissible medical examinations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Given the evolving nature of the pandemic, the EEOC has changed course and has determined that employers now must make an individualized assessment as to whether current pandemic and workplace circumstances justify mandatory testing of employees to prevent workplace transmission of COVID-19. In other words, employers can no longer simply assume that mandatory COVID-19 viral testing of employees is lawful under the ADA.
Continue Reading The EEOC Issues Updated Guidance on COVID-19 Testing
Starting January 1, 2023, Illinois employers are required to provide employees with unpaid bereavement leave following the loss of a family member or planned family addition. The Family Bereavement Leave Act (FBLA) amends Illinois’ Child Bereavement Leave Act of 2016 (CBLA) and adds Illinois to a short list of states (which includes only Oregon and Maryland) that require employers to provide for bereavement leave.
Continue Reading State Bereavement Laws and their Impact on Employers
Paid Time Off Requirements
As of July 1, 2022, West Hollywood, California, home to the famous Sunset Strip and Melrose shopping district, is now one of a handful of cities in California that requires employers to provide paid time off to employees (rather than just paid sick time).
West Hollywood’s Minimum Wage Ordinance, passed late last year, requires that qualifying employees who work at least two hours of work per week in the City are entitled to paid time off. Full-time employees who work at least 40 hours per week are entitled to 96 hours of paid time off per year, totaling 12 full days off. The time is pro-rated for employees who work less than 40 hours per week.
Continue Reading West Hollywood Requires Paid Leave and Hikes Minimum Wage
Does your company’s business expense reimbursement policy address the work-from-home situations that have become the new (at least temporarily) norm?
Continue Reading Expense Reimbursement Policies in the New World