As employers may recall, on September 6, 2022, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking concerning the joint-employer standard under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). On October 27, 2023, the NLRB published the long awaited Final Rule concerning the joint-employer standard, which will take effect on February 26, 2024.
Read MoreSince 2019, when settling a claim involving discrimination, New York employers have been required to follow a so-called “preference agreement process” to obtain a non-disclosure agreement preventing disclosure of the underlying facts and circumstances of the claim or action. On Friday, Governor Hochul signed legislation revising this process and, importantly, creating serious penalties for employers who include certain provisions in their agreements which penalize employees who speak about harassment, discrimination, or retaliation. This law takes effect immediately.
Read MoreThree recent developments in federal and New York State wage laws will impact which employees qualify as exempt from minimum wage and overtime pay requirements, how much employers will be required to pay hourly employees, and the consequences for failing to pay employees for work performed. On the federal level, the US Department of Labor (“DOL”) has issued a proposed rule which would increase the salary thresholds necessary to qualify for an exemption from minimum wage and overtime requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act. On the state level, NYS legislators have enacted two pieces of legislation: one that increases the statewide minimum wage annually through 2026 and a second that makes wage theft a larceny under the NYS penal code.
Read MoreThe National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has had a longstanding rule which allows employers to hold mandatory meetings where they can discuss unionization with their employees. Recently, these “captive audience” meetings have come under attack. At the federal level, the General Counsel of the NLRB issued a memo in April 2022 expressing opposition to captive audience meetings as a violation of the NLRA. There has also been a trend of state legislation impacting captive audience meetings, including in Maine, Oregon, Connecticut, and Minnesota. Recently, New York has joined this trend.
Read MoreAs employers are aware, it is important to review workplace rules, policies, and employee handbooks on a regular basis for legal compliance given the ever-changing landscape of federal, state, and local labor and employment laws. A recent National Labor Relations Board ruling further underscores the importance of regular review, even for employers that are not unionized. The decision, Stericycle, establishes a heightened standard for evaluating when facially neutral workplace policies unlawfully restrict employees in exercising their rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act and overturns years of Board precedents regarding work policies. The ruling raises challenging questions about how to craft work policies and how the Board will determine whether a workplace policy is impermissible when applying the new standard.
Read MoreAs we reported in previous alerts, New York City law imposes requirements on employers who use automated employment decision tools (“AEDTs”) to make employment decisions. Following suit, the NYS Senate introduced a bill that, if passed, would restrict employers’ use of not only AEDTs, but also electronic monitoring. While there is no analogous federal requirement relating to the use of AEDTs or electronic monitoring, the EEOC has also indicated that AI is an area of interest, recently releasing guidance on the application of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to employers’ use of AI tools.
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