On October 13, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1076 into law. AB 1076 codifies Edwards v. Arthur Andersen LLP (2008) 44 Cal. 4th 937, which held that any noncompete in an employment context, no matter how narrowly tailored, is void.Continue Reading Assembly Bill 1076 Reinforces California’s Ban on Noncompete Agreements
On November 9, 2023, the Chicago City Council passed a new Paid Leave and Paid Sick Leave Ordinance, which replaces the current Paid Sick Leave Ordinance, and grants up to 10 total days of paid time off per year to Chicago workers.Continue Reading Chicago Passes Expansive Paid Leave Ordinance
Over the past decade or so, there’s been much effort by the government to expand the scope of who may be deemed a joint employer. Those efforts have been to make contractors and their subcontractors, franchisors and their franchisees, and staffing agencies and their clients, joint employers. If they are joint employers, then one may be liable for the employment law wrongs of the other, and one may even have to engage in collective bargaining with respect to employees on the other joint employer’s payroll. Major efforts in this regard were made during the Obama Administration, all of which were rolled back during the Trump Administration.Continue Reading The Rules on Who’s a Joint Employer Have Dramatically Changed
On August 30, 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor announced its proposed new regulations on who can be treated as exempt from overtime pay. These proposals have been in the pipeline for nearly two years, with many in the business community anxious about what to expect. Some of that anxiety was somewhat undeserved, but some fears have been realized.Continue Reading DOL Proposes New White Collar Exemption Regulations – Legal Issues Abound!
On August 11, 2023, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published proposed regulations in the Federal Register for implementing the PWFA. The EEOC has invited the public to comment on the proposed regulations during a comment period that will close on October 10, 2023. While the regulations are proposed, PWFA has been in full effect since June 27, 2023.Continue Reading EEOC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to Implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA)
As observed in Dykema’s original alert on the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, Nos. 20-1199 & 21-707, corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion policies may be impacted by the Court’s broad language on race-based decision making. The ruling has already emboldened those currently in litigation over diversity efforts to push for the elimination of such programs entirely, as discussed in a recent article by the Wall Street Journal.Continue Reading Title VII & DEI Program Implications of the Supreme Court’s Recent Affirmative Action Decision
Over the last two years, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has been aggressively trying to expand its coverage in a manner that has taken many employers of non-unionized employees by surprise. Many rules and concepts that have been in place for decades without challenge have been turned on their heads and are now construed to be illegal. One example is a decision by the NLRB earlier this year in McLaren Macomb ruling that common confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions in settlement and separation agreements are illegal, as a matter of law, because they could – at least theoretically – chill a worker’s right to engage in concerted activity protected under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). The takeaway from these actions by the NLRB and its General Counsel is that all policies and practices of every employer – unionized and non-unionized – will be scrutinized under the NLRB’s new highly powered microscope. In other words, employers watch out!Continue Reading Employee Handbooks: The Pendulum Swings Back Questioning the Legality of Many Common Policies
On August 4, 2023, Governor Pritzker signed into law a recent overhaul of the Illinois Day and Temporary Labor Services Act (the “Act”). Since the Act was passed in 2000, the number of low-wage day or temporary laborers (“Temporary Workers”) in Illinois has more than doubled, rising from approximately 300,000 to 650,000. The recent amendments to the Act impose new responsibilities on staffing agencies and companies utilizing temporary workers to meet their staffing needs.Continue Reading Sweeping Changes to Illinois Day and Temporary Labor Services Act Now in Effect
As legal markets for recreational marijuana continue to open up in the U.S., and public opinion about responsible marijuana use slides towards acceptance, the requirements for employment-related drug testing are slowly evolving to meet the moment. News articles and blog posts about changes to employment related drug testing laws typically have a standard caveat that employers with workers covered by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s regulations are likely not impacted by whatever change in the law is being discussed. This blog post, however, addresses a recent change to the DOT’s rules. Specifically, the DOT announced a new testing option that employers subject to its regulations can use in order to get a more accurate picture of workers’ recent marijuana use.Continue Reading Workplace Drug Testing Update
On July 17, 2023, the California Supreme Court issued an opinion in Erik Adolph v. Uber Technologies, Inc., settling the issue of whether a Plaintiff’s non-individual PAGA claims must be dismissed if the Plaintiff’s individual PAGA claims are compelled to arbitration.Continue Reading The California Supreme Court Rules on PAGA Standing