On Wednesday, April 24, 2024, the EU member states in the EU Parliament voted in favor of the European Supply Chain Directive (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive – CSDDD). This is one of the final steps in a long legislative process. The vote had been delayed several times at the beginning of the year because some EU member states—including Germany—had announced that they would vote against the directive. The planned liability regime of the directive was a particular point of contention.

Content and scope

Zev Eigen considers artificial intelligence and predictive coding to be tools in making better informed hiring decisions. 

Corporate Counsel

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Zev Eigen comments on the value of data in making decisions on compensation.

HR Dive

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Scott Forman authored this article regarding big data, benchmarking, predictive modeling and trendspotting.

Today's General Counsel

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Aaron Crews authored this article on how planning can help HR leverage big data and analytics to improve hiring, training and retention.

HR Technologist

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Mickey Chichester and Natalie Pierce examine how companies may turn to AI and robotics to mitigate disruption and some of the employment implications of such initiatives.

Supply Chain Toolbox

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Welcome to our new bi-monthly series, where we compare employment law and practice from an international perspective, drawing on the experience of local and international employment lawyers who deal with these issues every day.

The first article in our series compares the new UK Government’s proposed changes to unfair dismissal protection with the law in Germany to see if there are any lessons that can be learned for UK employers from Continental Europe.

What’s to come in the UK?

Earl “Chip” Jones is quoted in this article on the issues surrounding compliance officers as whistleblowers.

Agenda

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Kevin O'Neill describes the live-action simulations of Littler Learning Group.

Training Magazine

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Barry Kuretzky discusses a recent Ontario Superior Court decision that punished an employer for trying to intimidate an employee through what the judge determined was a meritless counter claim.

Human Resources Director Canada

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Libby Henninger discusses the DOL’s proposal to expand overtime pay protections to more workers and why it may result in a legal battle.

Bloomberg Law

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On November 30, 2023, the Colorado Court of Appeals in Tender Care v.

Alexander MacDonald comments on the implications of SpaceX’s lawsuit against the NLRB, which alleges that the board violates constitutional separation of powers and due process protections by wielding different types of authority in the same case.

Bloomberg Law

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Andrea M. Kirshenbaum and Jennifer N. Capozzola dive into the U.S. DOL’s final rule (2024 IC Rule) for analyzing whether a worker should be classified as an employee or independent contractor under the FLSA and the lawsuits and challenges that remain in its path. 

The Legal Intelligencer

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Effective May 11, 2024, New York City now prohibits employers from entering into any type of agreement that shortens the statutory period by which an employee may file an administrative claim or complaint, or civil action, relating to unlawful discriminatory practices, harassment or violence under the New York City Human Rights Law, Admin. Code § 8-101, et seq. (NYCHRL).

Jeff Nowak says this case will test when workers can take federal job-protected leave prior to a baby’s arrival and won’t drastically change life as we know it because employers are overwhelmingly supportive of their employees’ FMLA rights.

Bloomberg Law

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What do you get when you combine a business-backed ballot initiative, the state legislature and governor’s office, and labor organizations? A deal. California style.

In RAV Truck & Trailer Repairs, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 25 (Dec. 14, 2022), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a supplemental decision in a case that will have implications for employers seeking to close shop, especially those operating in multiple locations.

In Pham v.

This Littler Lightbulb highlights some of the more significant employment law developments in the federal courts of appeal in the last month.

Eli Freedberg explains that there are lots of gray areas for employers in a New York City law that requires them to post pay ranges in their job ads.

Bloomberg Law

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Iván López García de la Riva discusses Spain’s plan to raise severance payments in certain situations. 

CincoDías

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Melissa Cee and Erin Webber discuss hiring the sixth shareholder at Littler – Noah Garber – since July as part of Littler’s new talent strategy that the firm began developing last year. 

The Recorder

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Michael Lotito weighs in on the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division’s key proposals and nominations.

Law360 Employment Authority

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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.

Alex MacDonald explains the key questions in the first test of a National Labor Relations Board ruling that threatens to make employers pay more to workers whose rights they violate.

Law360 Employment Authority

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Stephen T. Melnick discusses the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents (DIA)’s revised workers’ compensation notice for employees, which Massachusetts employers will start using Sept. 16, 2024.

SHRM

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On January 8, 2021, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) issued its final rule modifying the calculation of withdrawal liability by multiemployer pension plans.  This final rule amends the agency’s regulations on allocating unfunded vested benefits to withdrawing employers (29 C.F.R. § 4211) and notice, collection, and redetermination of withdrawal liability (29 C.F.R. § 4219).

House Education and Labor Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA) recently introduced legislation that seeks to provide aid to multiemployer pension plans (MEPs) facing insolvency. Entitled the Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act (EPPRA), the bill would fund this aid directly from the U.S. Treasury.

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

DCReport

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On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed into law the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which includes the Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act of 2021.  This law is designed to forestall the insolvency of approximately 100 multiemployer pension plans that were expected to run out of money necessary to pay vested benefits over the next 20 years.  Included among these funds is a particularly large fund that – absent congressional intervention – would have gone insolvent by 2025, leaving millions of retirees without their expected monthly pension. 

Sarah Bryan Fask shares her insight about the future of pension plans for unionized employees.

Bloomberg Law

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Sarah Bryan Fask explains how the special financial assistance will affect union-brokered pensions.

Bloomberg Law

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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.

Sarah Bryan Fask talks about the federal government’s temporary rescue of more than 200 union-brokered pension plans.

Bloomberg Law

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A recent federal appeals court case clarifies that, under ERISA, the regulations governing disability plans’ claims review procedures apply to claims that predate the 2018 changes to the regulations. The decision also serves as a reminder for plan administrators to review their claims review procedures to ensure compliance with the current requirements for a “full and fair review” benefits appeal process.

The Claims Review Regulations

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

On February 9, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued its decision in Trustees of IAM Nat'l Pension Fund v. M & K Emp. Sols., LLC, No. 22-7157 (D.C. Cir. Feb. 9, 2024), affirming the district court’s decision to vacate an arbitration award for the employer in a pension fund withdrawal liability case.  The D.C.

As Pride Month comes to a close, we are celebrating with a very special podcast that features the personal stories and perspectives from two members of the Littler family.

Littler Knowledge Management Counsel, Betsy Cammarata (GSC – Kansas City) talks with Littler alum, Bennett Kaspar-Williams (Corporate Counsel for Labor Relations at Amazon Studios) about:

Jasper Hoffstedde and Eric van Dam of Littler’s Amsterdam office discuss non-compete clauses in Dutch employment agreements. A non-compete clause may be agreed upon in writing in indefinite-term employment agreements with a person of age (18+). For fixed-term employment agreements, additional conditions apply. Such conditions are strict, which more often than not lead to invalidity or voidability of the clause.

Before offering a foreign national a permanent position, an employer must demonstrate to the Department of Labor that it tested the market and could not find a U.S. worker to fill the role. How can an employer show it properly tested the U.S. labor market to satisfy the DOL’s requirements under the Program Electronic Review Management (PERM) process?

Mike Dissinger and Jenny Schwendemann tell the story of how Mike’s love of dogs led him to start working with a pet rescue organization in Las Vegas (as well as taking home a new pup in the process).

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.