Cindy-Ann Thomas says employers should be aware of the increase in associational discrimination claims and offers suggestions for avoiding them.

Practical Law - The Journal

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Terri M. Solomon talks about Littler’s 2023 Employer Pulse Survey results, which show that employers are rebounding from 2020 as consumer spending on entertainment, travel and sports increases.

Law360 Employment Authority

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Jeff Nowak and Rich Falcone talk through a hypothetical HR dilemma involving a workplace complaint.

SHRM Online

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Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

Download full Q1 2023 Global Guide Quarterly

Extensions of Laws

New Legislation Enacted

Authors: Carlo Majer, Partner, and Caterina Colombano, Associate – Littler Italy

Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

Download full Q1 2023 Global Guide Quarterly

Whistleblower Protection Act Has Entered into Force

New Legislation Enacted

Authors: Dennis Veldhuizen, Partner, and Eric van Dam, Partner – Clint | Littler

Jesús Lahera offers a detailed analysis of Spain’s Whistleblowing Directive and its impact on employers and employees.

Observatorio de RRHH

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In this article, we share a round-up of the key developments from a regulatory perspective for HR Professionals in UK financial services firms. This covers expected changes to the SMCR regime, regulatory remuneration requirements and whistleblowing framework. We also look at the increasing focus of the regulator on culture and conduct within financial services firms in the wake of recent sexual harassment allegations within a UK asset manager. 

SMCR

Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

Download full Q2 2023 Global Guide Quarterly

German Whistleblower Protection Act

New Legislation Enacted

Author: Matthias Pallentin, Partner – vangard | Littler

Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

Download full Q2 2023 Global Guide Quarterly

New Whistleblowing Act

New Legislation Enacted

Author: Zoltán Csernus, Attorney-at-Law – VJT & Partners Law Firm

Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

Download full Q2 2023 Global Guide Quarterly

Deadline for the Implementation of the Whistleblowing Reporting System

New Legislation Enacted

Authors: Sonia Cortés, Partner, and Isabel Herrero, Attorney-at-Law – Abdón Pedrajas | Littler

A recent District of Columbia federal court ruling reminds employers that a severance agreement containing a release of claims under the False Claims Act does not guarantee dismissal of a suit on those grounds.

Background on the FCA

Protection of whistleblowers has been on the EU’s agenda for quite some time. Four years ago the EU issued the EU Whistleblowing Directive throughout its Member States.

The SEC recently issued imposed significant and costly sanctions against companies that require employees to sign non-disclosure agreements containing certain language either limiting employees from disclosing company confidential information without company approval, or representing that they have not filed complaints with government entities.

By Philip M. Berkowitz | November 08, 2023 at 10:00 AM

Zoe Argento talks about the two main types of valuable and sensitive information that employees typically steal and offers ways employers can prevent workplace theft.

SHRM Online

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Dear Littler,

UPDATE: This law took effect on February 8, 2024.

*  *  *

Dear Littler,

In the first major action of 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it had entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with a publicly traded global software company for alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The January 10, 2024 announcement described the company’s agreement to pay more than $220 million in connection with the investigation, consisting of just under $120 million in criminal penalties.  While significant, these fines were reduced based on the pilot program announced by the DOJ last spring, as described below.

This Littler Lightbulb highlights some of the more significant employment law developments at the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts of appeal in the last month.

At the Supreme Court

Denise Visconti and Trish Martin discuss the steps company boards and senior management can take to support their organization’s pay equity efforts. 

Directors & Boards

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D. Porpoise Evans examines a new DOJ whistleblower program that will complement last year’s focus on corporate voluntary disclosure programs and offers whistleblower awards to motivate employees to report misconduct.

HR Daily Advisor

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2024 has been a fruitful year in the UK for whistleblowing law so far, with three key cases employers should be aware of:

Can an external job applicant qualify as a whistleblower?

One of the very first questions to ask when presented with a whistleblowing claim in the UK is whether the person who made the disclosure was entitled to protection. The Employment Rights Act 1996 protects employees from dismissal, and protects employees and workers from detriment, for having made protected disclosures. But does it cover job applicants?

On September 1, 2021, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), the Department of Labor sub-agency charged with enforcing affirmative action and non-discrimination requirements imposed on federal contractors by way of Executive Order 11246, announced that it was reversing

On August 31, 2021, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved the Affirmative Action Program Verification Interface (AAVI) proposed by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) for the verification and upload of federal contractor affirmative action plans.

Earlier this month, President Biden released his COVID-19 Action Plan, Path Out of the Pandemic (Plan) with the stated goal of getting more people vaccinated.¹ As part of the Plan, President Biden signed Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors (Order).

Meredith Shoop talks about the Affirmative Action Program Verification Interface where covered federal contractors can upload their affirmative action plans for review.

Government Executive

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Update: The vaccination deadline for covered federal contractors has been extended until January 18, 2022.

The federal government’s complicated multi-pronged approach to implementing COVID-19 safeguards related to federal contractors has left many confused.  We offer this brief guide to help contractors understand their obligations and the timelines for implementation.

On October 11, 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued Executive Order GA-40, which states that no entity in Texas can “compel” any individual, including any employee or consumer, to receive a COVID-19 vaccination who objects “for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons, including prior recovery from COVID-19.”  The order also establishes a maximum criminal penalty of $1,000 but expressly exclude

On September 9, 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors (“Order”), which directed the executive agencies to begin amending federal contracts to require federal contractors to take specific actions to combat COVID-19 and to, in turn, require covered subcontractors to take the same actions (the federal contractor COVID-19 workplace

The White House on November 4 announced that the deadline for employers covered by the federal contractor vaccine requirement to comply with the vaccine mandate will be extended from December 8, 2021 to January 4, 2022.

It was all very well to say ‘Drink me,’ but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry. ‘No, I’ll look first,’ she said, ‘and see whether it’s marked “poison” or not’; for […] she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison,’ it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.

                                           —Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, Chapter 1, Down the Rabbit Hole

On February 1, 2022, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) presented a webinar on its new contractor portal through which covered contractors are being asked to certify whether they are meeting their requirement to develop and maintain annual affirmative action programs.

On March 31, 2022, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued a new Directive 2022-02.  Its stated purpose is to provide “transparency on OFCCP’s compliance evaluation policies and expectations for contractors”—but upon review, it appears to be a retreat from the standards of transparency, certainty, and efficiency that guided OFCCP from 2017 through 2020.  The new directive radically alters OFCCP’s approach toward compliance reviews and removes guardrails that had been put in place t

On May 20, 2022, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) published its FY 2022 Corporate Scheduling Announcement List (CSAL) for supply and service contractors. OFCCP has stated that it will immediately begin to send out scheduling letters to some of the contractors on the new list.  This is a change from the past when OFCCP would wait at least 45 days from publication of the list before beginning audits.  See U.S.

On August 18, 2022, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued a revised version of its Directive 2022-01 - Advancing Pay Equity Through Compensation Analysis, which was originally issued on March 15, 2022.

On August 19, 2022, OFCCP published a notice in the Federal Register for the stated purpose of advising employers that in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, it is planning to produce confidential information that is protected from disclosure pursuant to a statutory exemption.

As outlined in our August 22 Insight, OFCCP announced an intention to produce federal contractors’ Type 2 EEO-1 data in response to a FOIA request from the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR).  Employers were given until September 19, 2022, to file their objections. On September 15, 2022, OFCCP extended the deadline for filing objections to October 19, 2022.

Alecia Winfield explains what diversity means in corporate America and says the ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests fueled a drive for change in corporate America, similar to that of the #MeToo movement. 

Apparel Resources

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Readers will recall that in August 2022, OFCCP published a notice in the Federal Register advising employers that it was the subject of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking EEO-1 data from all federal contractors, including first-tier subcontractors, for the period 2016-2020.