Employment Law Newsletter: A Monthly Report On Labor Law Issues
Our Monthly Report on Labor Law Issues, also known as the Employment Law Bulletin, is a monthly newsletter that covers a wide range of labor law issues, including affirmative action plans, strikes, OSHA regulations, minimum wage requirements, and more. Other topics covered have included issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as workplace walk-outs and strikes, vaccinations, and employee rights related to positive test results and quarantine. The newsletter also covers issues related to discrimination, such as artificial intelligence and racial bias, and issues related to unions, such as organizing efforts and union successes at companies like Amazon and Starbucks. The newsletter also covers issues related to taxes, immigration, and court cases related to labor law.
In our March newsletter, we discussed a provision in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Handbook for Employers, Guidance for Completing Form I-9, which deals with a situation where an employee informs the employer that his or her identity is different from that previously used to complete Form I-9. The Guidance states that: "In that circu...
A recent case illustrates important principles concerning whether an employer has equally applied its attendance policies, as well as its other work rules. Watkins v. EFP, LLC, 125 FEP Cases 1756 (N.D. Ala. 2014). The African-American plaintiff first contended that the employer treated him differently than a similarly-situated white employee w...
A couple of recent cases from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) create additional issues for employers when unionized employees refuse to take drug tests, and/or demand some type of representation prior to taking such tests. Some 40 years ago the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case involving a unionized employer that, when an employee is ques...
Jim Wimberly attended a presentation by the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, Richard Griffin, in San Diego, California, on November 11, 2015. Griffin presented up-to-date election statistics on petitions filed for elections with the NLRB for the first six months under the new quickie election rules, running from mid-April to ...
During late November, at a conference at the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section, Solicitor of Labor Patricia Smith, stated it was likely that the new white collar eligibility rules will not be issued until late 2016. One of the reasons for the time frame is that DOL received approximately 270,000 comments about the pro...
Some employers forget that minimum wage laws do not allow employers to charge employees for the purchase or rental of the uniforms and possibly cleaning to the extent it causes an employee’s pay to fall below minimum wage or statutory overtime. The situation particularly comes into play where employers charge employees a lump sum for uniforms ...
Each employer with 50 or more full-time employees (30 hours or more per week) must provide employee-specific information to the IRS about the health coverage offered during 2015, whether healthcare benefits are offered or not. The employer must send a Form 1094-C to the IRS, which gives a company level overview of the benefits offered and hours work...
When an employer violates the I-9 paperwork or discrimination requirements, either USCIS (for paperwork violations) or the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (for discrimination violations) will initiate an action for penalties against the employer. The employer has the opportunity to settle or to fight.&nb...
There seems to be a trend developing among many employers of eliminating annual performance reviews, and instead relying on more constant feedback. Kiplinger reports that some 6% of Fortune 500 employers have recently eliminated the process and that many more are likely to follow. The theory is that ongoing feedback on a quarterly, monthly or ...
Two little known aspects of the so-called "budget deal" of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, significantly affect employment. One provision amends the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 to require all agencies with civil monetary penalties covered by the statute to adjust those penalties to represent the change in the consumer...
ICE ISSUES GUIDANCE FOR EMPLOYERS CONDUCTING INTERNAL I-9 AUDITS
Most employers conduct internal I-9 audits although they are not technically required by law. On December 14, 2015, the U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Office of Special Counsel (OSC) issued guidance for employers conducting such audits.
The guidelines suggest that an ...