Employment Law Alerts

It is now much easier for employees in New York to assert claims of workplace harassment. In the past, in order to bring a claim of workplace harassment in New York, employees were required to demonstrate that the alleged harassment was either severe or pervasive. Employees no longer have to satisfy that burden. In addition, New York's new statute allows a prevailing plaintiff to recover punitive ...

As previously reported in our Alert published on March 7, 2019, a federal judge has ordered the EEOC to provide guidance regarding the collection of wage and hour data ("Component 2 data").  On April 4, the EEOC submitted a filing to the court saying it would have to engage a third-party contractor, at a cost of over $3 million, in order to process the Component 2 data. Even though the judge has ...

On March 29, 2019, the Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave (“DFML”) re-issued draft regulations on the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave Act (“PFML”). DFML will hold at least two public hearings, beginning in May. There will also be a period for written comments. Final regulations should be published before July 1, 2019. PFML will require Massachusetts employers to ...

 In September 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") expanded its collection efforts to include summary W-2 pay data and total hours worked by race, ethnicity, and gender from employers that already file the EEO-1 report (e.g., private employers with over 100 employees and federal contractors with more than 50 employees). This initiative was intended to help close the pay gap ...

  On February 24, 2019, New York state's Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act ("GENDA") went into effect.  GENDA prohibits all employers with four or more employees from discriminating against workers on the basis of their actual or perceived gender identity, gender expression, or their transgender status.   Gender identity or expression is defined as having gender identity, self image, ...

There is generally a gnashing of teeth when a key employee leaves for a competitor, and that gnashing may evolve into weeping when an employer finds that its noncompetition protections are unenforceable. Massachusetts has long followed most states by enforcing noncompetition agreements that are narrowly-tailored to protect the company’s legitimate business interests, without being over-broad. The ...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") announced that it has delayed the filing due date for the EEO-1 Report. The EEO-1 Report is a compliance survey mandated by federal statute and regulations. The survey requires company employment data to be categorized by race/ethnicity, gender, and job category. The data which employers report in the survey helps the EEOC in deterring ...

As the partial federal government shutdown continues, more companies are being affected, directly and indirectly, and business owners, executives and human resources professionals need to be very careful about how they respond. Potential areas of concern include, but are not limited to, the following: 1.  Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"). Complying with FLSA during the partial government shut ...

Much has been written about the #MeToo movement over the past several months, and, justifiably, this will continue to be the case until such time as sexual harassment is no longer plaguing our society. The attention this movement has gotten has not gone unnoticed by politicians at both the state and local level, resulting in efforts to address workplace sexual harassment through legislation ...

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Dolgencorp, LLC, d/b/a Dollar General Corporation serves as a critical lesson of what can happen when managers are not properly prepared. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held in this case that Linda Atkins, an insulin-dependent diabetic, was subjected to disability discrimination when her employer, Dollar General, failed to accommodate a reasonable, ...