Kurt J. Erickson, Kerry L. Middleton, Alice D. Kirkland, Ben Sandahl, Jeremy Sosna and Susan K. Fitzke discuss important changes in Minnesota’s employment laws at the end of the recent legislative session.

SHRM

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Kelly Cardin examines NYC's proposed pay transparency legislation and what employers can do to navigate applicants' and employees' shifting expectations that have arisen as a result of salary disclosure laws and their requirements.

Law360

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Blair C. Senesi and Jaime B. Laurent examine the City of Los Angeles’ “Model Contract” under the Freelance Worker Protections Ordinance (FWPO) and explain what it means for employers.

SHRM

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In February 2019, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (“Development Ministry”) introduced a draft law (the “Draft Law”) that seeks to mandate human rights due diligence for German companies and their global business partners, including suppliers.

Mickey Chichester and Jan-Ove Becker write about the EU’s proposal to regulate the use of AI in employment decisions, including selecting, terminating and evaluating employees.

World at Work

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In January 2022, the New York State Senate introduced a bill that seeks to impose significant human rights and environmental due diligence and disclosure obligations on fashion retail sellers and manufacturers operating in the state of New York.  As we reported previously, 2021 saw a number of international and regional legislative efforts to impose human rights due diligence and disclosure obligations on multinational employers.

Rhonda B. Levy and George Vassos write about a case in which a Canadian judge finally ruled on whether or not COVID laws are in breach of human rights.

Human Resources Director Canada

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Karolina Schiffter discusses whether Ukrainian citizens who claim refugee status can work in Poland.

Gazeta Prawna

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National and supranational legislatures continue to develop laws requiring employers to conduct due diligence of their operations and those of their business partners in order to address human rights risks such as forced labor and child labor.  Recently, the European Union (EU), Switzerland, and Japan have rolled out such laws, described below:

EU’s Corporate Due Diligence and Corporate Accountability Directive

On March 15, 2024, the EU member states voted in favor of the European Supply Chain Directive (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive – CSDDD) in the EU Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) after a long back-and-forth. The vote, originally scheduled for February 9, 2024, had been initially canceled and postponed indefinitely. The reason for this was that numerous member states – including Germany – had already announced their abstention from the vote in advance. The final version of the directive is less burdensome for companies compared to the previous draft.

Are employers required to conduct human rights due diligence in their global operations?

The scope and scale of many employers’ global operations and their global supply chains are expanding. This expansion has led to a greater focus on the risk of corporate human rights abuses such as forced labor, child labor, and other forms of modern slavery.

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 discusses how employers can utilize Big Data to help close the gender wage gap in their organizations.

SHRM Online

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Zev Eigen recommends that organizations regularly analyze data and policies to avoid compensation gaps between men and women.

Information Management

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Scott Rechtschaffen talks about cybersecurity enhancements and the importance of investing in technology. 

Law360

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The Massachusetts Attorney General has recently published an Overview and Frequently Asked Questions (the “Overview”) regarding the amendment to the Massachusetts Equal Pay Act, set to take effect on July 1, 2018.  The Overview answers many questions that employers have been asking about this wide-ranging new law.  The Overview also confirms the importance of an employer self-evaluation, offering some direction on what types of evaluations are appropriate, and explaining how it could protect a company from liability under the law.

The New Equal Pay Act

Aaron Crews is quoted regarding technology’s role in HR. 

HR Dive

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Bloomberg Law’s^® Daily Labor Report^® news team at the Littler Executive Employer^® Conference interviewed panelists about a broad spectrum of employment and labor topics addressing significant developments, emerging trends and challenges facing in-house counsel, employee relations professionals and human resources executives.

Aaron Crews explains the many ways AI can benefit employers.

SHRM Online

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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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Scott Rechtschaffen authored this article on the future of knowledge management in law firms.

CIO Review

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Natalie Pierce, co-chair of Littler's Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Automation practice group, and Debra Kadner, machine learning expert and cofounder of Eskalera, discuss the framework for helping employers build their workforces for the future.
 

In this podcast, Littler’s Chief Knowledge Officer, Scott Rechtschaffen, talks with his Cornell Law School students about the potential for lawyers to use software to develop practical tools for the delivery of legal services. During their semester, the students experienced how to take their growing knowledge of the law, identify a problem, coordinate with subject matter and technical experts, and create a legal app designed to assist users, who might be either clients or fellow attorneys.

Aaron Crews describes the various duties of legal technologists.

Legaltech News

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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?

How should an employer respond when an employee is accused, charged, or convicted of a crime?

Fortunately, this is not a day-to-day issue that HR teams tend to deal with, but when it does arise, it can raise complex employment law issues and employers may have a PR crisis on their hands.

In this podcast, Littler attorneys Michael Kessel, Russ McEwan and Alan Model, out of our Newark office, discuss the importance of cultivating “employee engagement” to foster a productive, invested workforce. They also describe the new Littler Positive Employee Relations Series, which offers customized, intensive training to supervisors on the causes of negative morale and then arms them with practical tools to spot and handle problems before they get out of hand.
 

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

Jim Paretti weighs in on the NLRB’s latest effort to broaden the joint employer rule.

Law360 Pulse

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In a favorable ruling for employers defending against wage statement compliance claims, the California Supreme Court in Naranjo v. Spectrum Services Inc. (Naranjo) settled an age-old dispute by determining that an employer that reasonably and in good faith believed it was providing a complete and accurate wage statement has a viable defense to a claim for penalties under the California wage statement statute.

Background

As the Supreme Court mulls the Chevron decision, Michael Lotito says whatever the court decides, it’s likely little will change at the ground level of day-to-day enforcement activities.

Law.com

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Jim Paretti comments on a recent boost in EEOC commissioner charges.

Bloomberg Law

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On August 6, 2019, New Jersey’s wage and hour laws were amended to include liquidated damages on some claims, a new retaliation cause of action, and expansion of the statute of limitations from two to six years (the “2019 amendments”).  Since then, litigants in New Jersey have struggled with the effect those amendments have had on their lawsuits.  One of the main points of confusion centered around whether the 2019 amendments applied retroactively to violations prior to August 6, 2019, or whether the changes applied prospectively only.  A significant conflict developed between federal and

Robert W. Pritchard comments on the dismissal of a longstanding dispute between Uber and its former drivers.

The Legal Intelligencer

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Orly Henry discusses BIPA reform and applying the law to pending cases.

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin

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The Philadelphia Protection of Displaced Contract Workers Ordinance offers job protections to workers providing security, janitorial, building maintenance, food and beverage, hotel service, or health care services who are employed by service contractors, and are displaced when the service contract is terminated and awarded to another service contractor.¹  A recent amendment to the Ordinance significantly expands its scope to impose obligations on a business that decides to no longer utilize its

In 2019, California adopted several laws that restricted “non-disclosure" provisions in employment-related agreements.  Those laws, passed in the wake of the “me too” movement, limited non-disclosure provisions in settlement agreements for lawsuits and administrative agency charges involving allegations of sexual harassment.¹  They also limited the use of non-disclosure provisions in exchange for a raise or a bonus, or as a co

In the first such decision from a federal appellate court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled the COVID-19 pandemic is not a “natural disaster” that exempts employers from providing advance notice of mass layoffs and plant closures under the WARN Act. The court also opined that the natural-disaster exception requires proof of proximate causation, not but-for causation.¹

A bill advancing in the New Jersey Legislature would expedite the implementation of significant changes to the state’s WARN law. Back in January 2020, Governor Philip D. Murphy signed into law Senate Bill 3170, which radically expanded employers’ advance notice and severance pay obligations under the Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act—otherwise known as NJ WARN.

In late January 2023, the UK Government published a draft Code of Practice on Dismissal and Re-engagement. The trigger for the draft Code was the increased attention on the use of dismissal and re-engagement (also known as “fire and rehire”) by employers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Survey of more than 450 employers reveals critical insights on layoffs, hiring practices and more

(March 8, 2023) – Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, has released the results of its latest Employer Pulse Survey Report: 2023 Economic Outlook, based on responses from more than 450 in-house lawyers, C-suite executives and human resources professionals across the United States.