Shannon Meade talks about states implementing minimum wage increases, increases in employers’ total compensation packages and the trend in “unretirements.”

HR Dive

View (Subscription required.)

Paul Piccigallo talks about considerations for employers when raising minimum wage in the midst of rising inflation.

SHRM Online

View (Subscription required.)

Claire Deason weighs in on whether employers are obligated to pay for remote employees' commutes into work, business expenses and paid sick time.

Law360 Employment Authority

View (Subscription required.) 

Sebastian Chilco and Wendy Buckingham discuss a new San Francisco law that aims to increase income and employment security for private-sector employees when they perform military service.

SHRM Online

View (Subscription required.)

The state of epidemic emergency in Poland will be lifted on July 1, 2023, and Paweł Sych explains how this will affect workers and employers.

interia biznes

View

On August 8, 2023, the Governor of Puerto Rico signed into law Act No. 85-2023, effective immediately. The statute amends Puerto Rico’s Workers’ Compensation Act by further incentivizing safe workplaces.

Jeff Nowak discusses the problems that negative favoritism in a department can cause if it is not corrected.

SHRM Online

View (Subscription required.)

Sarah Bryan Fask provides insight on multi-employer pension plans. 

DCReport

View Article 

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the Second Circuit’s decision in Laurent v. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, which held that retirees could receive money damages in the form of recalculated benefits in a class action over how the company’s cash balance pension plan calculated lump-sum benefits.

Fiduciaries of retirement plans continue to be plagued by class actions brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) challenging their fiduciary management of investment options and participant fees. A recent federal court decision, however, shows that fiduciaries of ERISA retirement plans may be able to attack and defeat complaints alleging breaches of ERISA fiduciary duties at the pleading stage if the right arguments are made and if certain fact patterns are present. 

Jasper Hoffstedde and Fleur van Lieshout of Littler’s Amsterdam office discuss the termination clause in Dutch employment agreements. The termination clause seems an easy and straightforward clause; you simply invoke the clause and terminate employment, right? For the employee that is indeed in the case, but the employer has another hoop to jump through if the employee doesn’t want to agree to termination. He then has the obligation to substantiate the reason for termination, the so-called valid ground.

Jeronimo Simonovis and Lavanga Wijekoon discuss an asylum case before U.S. immigration authorities that Jeronimo won involving a woman and her 8-year-old son.

Littler attorneys provide pro bono services in a variety of areas, depending on the interests of individual attorneys. The firm values and encourages the community-minded and pro bono efforts of our lawyers and staff.
  

Emily Haigh, U.S. Army veteran and co-chair of Litter's Veterans Affinity Group, speaks with Littler attorneys William Anthony, Tracy Leidner, and Emily Arnett, who each have a family member currently serving in active duty.
  

An increasing number of employers, especially those in the tech industry, are conducting layoffs or reductions in force. What happens to foreign workers in these situations, whose work visas are often tied to their jobs? What options are available to foreign nationals who are in the process of obtaining permanent residency or are seeking to retain employment so as not to jeopardize their visa status? What notification requirements do employers have in these situations?

There has been a recent, dramatic rise in antisemitism in the United States. In this podcast, David Goldman, the Executive Director and General Counsel of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, shares his perspective on how this trend is impacting our communities and workplaces, and offers some practical insights as to how the development of a shared understanding, along with a combination of empathy and meaningful policy implementation, can contribute to a more respect-based coexistence as we move forward.
  

In continued celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, Littler's Jennifer Maguire, Sarah Sorensen, and Daniel Kim discuss how their individual experiences in the U.S. Military – as a JAG officer, a military spouse, and an officer – shaped them as leaders, ultimately leading to careers in labor and employment law.
  

This podcast discusses the critical considerations when evaluating whether and how to terminate employees in Asia. Trent Sutton (U.S. qualified lawyer), Soowon Hong (Korean qualified lawyer) and Shiau Sang Tee (Hong Kong and Malaysia qualified lawyer), members of Littler’s APAC Regional Office based in Singapore, set out the general three approaches to terminations across Asia. They explore what grounds are generally defensible (or not) and the variation in the usage of negotiated exits.
 

On April 11, 2022, Bill 88, Working for Workers Act, 2022 (Bill 88), received Royal Assent and became law. Among other things, Bill 88 enacted the new Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act, 2022 (DPWRA).¹ The DWPRA did not come into force upon its enactment. 

On September 18, 2024, at the request of the State of Michigan and its attorney general, the Michigan Supreme Court clarified issues relating to future minimum wage rates and minimum cash wage rates for tip-credit employees stemming from an earlier opinion.

On August 26, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland decided in Teamsters Local Union No. 355 v. Total Distribution Services, Inc., that the Maryland Economic Stabilization Act (“Maryland WARN Act” or “Act”) does not provide individuals with the right to file suit in their personal capacity to enforce a legal claim under the Act. The Maryland WARN Act still may be enforced by the Maryland Department of Labor.  The Act is based, in part, on its federal counterpart, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, with important differences. 

Last fall, California enacted Senate Bill 525, which substantially raises the base minimum wage for health care workers over time to $25 per hour.  The first incremental increase above the general state minimum wage was scheduled to occur on June 1, 2024.  However, there were several delays and amendments to the law due to its impact on the California budget.  After the last delay in late June, health care employers did not have a clear answer t

The Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) Office of Labor Standards (COLS) recently posted updates to its website regarding minimum wage obligations, paid leave and paid sick and safe leave, new fair work week thresholds, and updated required labor notices. The compliance deadline for these obligations is July 1, 2024.

Sophie Vanhegan says employers must continue to shift culture and workplace dynamics to encourage greater awareness of and support for mental health matters. 

People Management

View

If you have employees working in Oregon, chances are you have heard about Oregon’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program also known as Paid Leave Oregon (“PLO”). In addition to PLO, eligible Oregon employees may be entitled to leave under the Oregon Family Medical Leave Act (“OFLA”), Oregon Sick Time law (“OSTL”), and the federal Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”).

UPDATE: On August 21, 2024, the Attorney General and State of Michigan asked the Michigan Supreme Court to clarify – no later than September 15, 2024 – various rulings in its July 31, 2024 decision, e.g.: 1) How the state should calculate CPI adjustments for the preset minimum wage rates in 2025 through 2028; 2) Whether, aside from in 2025, future minimum wage rates will take effect on February 21 or January 1; and 3) Whether the court intended to have the minimum cash wage increase from 80% (2028) to 100% (2029) rather than 80% (2028), 90%

Lisa Shevlin and Cristin Casey review Oregon’s leave laws and offer some suggested strategies to help employers maintain compliance.

SHRM

View (Subscription required)

Bradford Kelley discusses the importance of employers reviewing their leave of absence policies to ensure compliance with the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.

Law360 

View (Subscription required)

Ole Kristian Olsby and Nina Elisabeth Thjømøe explain the regulations around gender equality and discrimination in the workplace.

International Law Office (ILO)

View Article (Subscription required.)

Ole Kristian Olsby and Nina Elisabeth Thjømøe explain Norway’s new Anti-discrimination Tribunal.

International Law Office (ILO)

View Article (Subscription required.)

Erin Webber and Zoe Argento discuss the effect the pandemic has had on working mothers and the impact on women in the workforce generally.
 

Margaret Parnell Hogan interviews Wendy Buckingham and Emily Haigh on how their experience as women in the U.S. military influenced their legal careers, and how their backgrounds shaped their outlook on gender equity in the workplace.
  

An effective way to increase diversity hiring is to require diverse candidate slates for interviewing. Such slates include at least two diverse or women candidates in the pool of finalists. Employers should take heed, however, because there are limits to which a recruiter or a staffing agency can go in building such a slate. Alyesha Dotson discusses the avenues to intentionally recruit for diversity in a fair and smart manner to avoid violating antidiscrimination laws.
  

Michael Chichester explains how the pandemic has changed what the workforce looks like today and in the future.

Law360

View Article (Subscription required.) 

A properly structured and implemented Affinity Group (AKA Employee Resource Group) is a powerful tool in an employer’s Diversity Equity & Inclusion tool belt. But, unwary employers may risk violating the National Labor Relations Act if they bargain with an Affinity Group. In this month’s podcast, Alyesha Asghar Dotson discusses the do’s and don’ts of interacting with an active Affinity Group within your organization.
  

In continued celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, Eddie Chyun (Cleveland), Lavanga Wijekoon (Chicago) and Aki Tanaka (Boston) share their stories of moving to the U.S., assimilating and adding to the American culture, and how their worldview, experiences, and background prepared them to practice law.
  

Barry Hartstein explains his view of the EEOC’s vaccination incentives.

HR Dive

View (Subscription required.)

Arizona recently expanded provisions of the Arizona Civil Rights Act (ACRA) to cover pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions. Additionally, following a national trend in response to perceived state and federal inaction, cities in Arizona on their own passed new ordinances that expands protected categories and coverage.

ACRA Expansion

Jim Paretti discusses the rescinding of a controversial EEOC rule that would have required the agency to share more information with employers credibly accused of discrimination during the conciliation process.

Law360 Employment Authority

View (Subscription required.)

Mishell Parreno Taylor and Raquel Zilberman Rotman write about how law firms can use the opportunities created by the pandemic to engage in real conversations about equity and offer steps firms can take to promote authenticity.

Bloomberg Law

View 

An employer pays its managers an annual salary and in addition provides monthly advances based on an estimate of the incentive bonus the employee appears likely to have earned by the end of the year. However, if the employee's performance declines over time so that the earned bonus ends up being less than the amounts advanced over the course of the year, it seems obvious that the employer should be able to deduct the overpayments from future paychecks.

The focus of this 2011 Littler Report is to provide employers with information to prepare and plan for regulations recently passed and those currently making their way through the agency rulemaking process. Part One of this Littler Report will set the stage and define the challenge employers will face in the coming years as the Obama Administration enters the second half of its term.