Q: Our company wants to implement a policy to limit personal cell phone usage only to break times. Can we ask workers to put their phones in their work lockers or on their supervisors’ desks? In most jurisdictions, no...
Employment Law Letter
Wisconsin’s worker’s compensation statute requires employers, absent reasonable cause, to rehire employees who suffered a workplace injury. Normally, employees need to show they reapplied to their old position to make a...
Q: Can we require independent contractors to complete the same trainings employees take (e.g., antiharassment or safety training)? Yes, businesses can and should require independent contractors to complete trainings on...
Effective December 31, 2022, the minimum wage in upstate New York (all of New York State except Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties and New York City), will rise from $13.20 to $14.20 per hour. The minimum wage for...
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed a radical and unprecedented rule that would prohibit employers from using noncompete clauses with their workers. This follows the initiation of a landmark...
The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights (DCR) recently adopted new and amended regulations concerning the "Display of Official Posters of the Division on Civil Rights” that require employers to display two updated...
In late December 2022, Congress passed—and President Joe Biden signed—a spending bill that included two laws expanding rights for pregnant and nursing employees. One of the laws, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA)...
A new year has started, and that means new minimum wage rates. New rates went into effect on January 1, 2023, in Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Minnesota Every year, the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry...
The proliferation of remote work has created new and strong incentives for employers to invest in tools that make it easy to electronically monitor employees. This prompted National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General...
The National Labor Relation Act (NLRA) permits the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to award damages to employees that put them in the financial position they would have been in if no violation had occurred. This is...
The Consolidated Appropriations Act—signed into law by President Joe Biden on December 29, 2022—enacted two laws providing protections to pregnant women and nursing mothers in the workplace: the Pregnant Workers Fairness...
Q: Can we require independent contractors to complete the same training as employees take (e.g., antiharassment or safety training)? Under the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Independent Contractor classifications hinge...
On December 9, 2022, the Texas Supreme Court gave an early holiday gift to Texas employers when it resolved a pretrial, fact-finding issue. As the court put it, “Quite unsurprisingly, discovery (i.e., pretrial exchange...
You worked so hard on your arbitration agreement and its rollout. It required a lot of time, effort, and money. After it’s been implemented, a discrimination lawsuit is filed against you in federal court by an employee...
It’s not uncommon for employers to provide benefits to new hires, such as signing bonuses or specialized training, on the condition that the employee repay the bonus or expenses or otherwise be responsible for the cost...