Workforce Bulletin

By:  Kara M. Maciel and Casey Cosentino

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) continues its aggressive quest to challenge “inflexible” medical leave policies, as Denny’s Inc. agreed earlier this month to pay $1.3 million to settle a nationwide class action lawsuit. Denny’s also entered into an injunction barring its restaurants from future violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), including denying disabled employees reasonable medical leave and retaliating against employees for bringing disability discrimination claims.

The ...

In previous articles and postings, we have cautioned that legislative policy of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act threatens to circumvent corporate compliance programs and drive whistleblowers having vital information outside the organization in the hope of receiving rich bounty awards. In a recent article published by Bloomberg Law Reports®, Allen Roberts discusses some of the challenges businesses subject to SEC jurisdiction need to address in the face of the SEC’s Final Rule – mindful that the plaintiffs’ bar has geared up to ...

The placement of a large, inflatable rat balloon at an employer’s facility, a sight familiar to many urban dwellers, was upheld in a recent 3-1 decision by the National Labor Relations Board, which found that a union that had stationed the rat near a hospital in Florida to protest work being performed by a non-union construction contractor at the facility did not violate the federal law against secondary boycotts in labor disputes.  Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local 15 (Galencare, Inc. d/b/a Brandon Regional Medical Center), 356 N.L.R.B. No. 162 (2011).  (PDF)  ...

By:  Kara M. Maciel

The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division in Norfolk, Virginia has announced that it will be stepping up its compliance audits and enforcement efforts against area hotels. In the past few years, the DOL stated it found violations at about 60% of local hotels. According to the DOL, the agency recently made spot checks at 10 area hotels since April. This is just one part of the agency’s nationwide enforcement program and its “Plan/Prevent/Protect” initiative against the hospitality industry. Common violations assessed by the DOL include:

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Last year, two significant sets of regulations were issued that will affect qualified plan fiduciary responsibility and administration.  Last July, interim final regulations were issued requiring retirement plan service providers to disclose detailed information regarding their fees and potential conflicts of interest to plan fiduciaries.  These service provider disclosures were scheduled to apply to plan contracts and arrangements for services on or after July 16, 2011.  Since those regulations were issued, there has been much discussion surrounding compliance with these ...

By: Kara Maciel and Adam Solander

Over a year after thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”) was signed into law, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) recently released much anticipated information on issues related to the calculations of full-time and full-time equivalent employees for determining when an employer may be subject to a penalty under PPACA. In Notice 2011-36 (“Notice”), the IRS is specifically seeking employer’s comments on several of the issues by June 17, 2011. For hospitality employers, who traditionally employ a large ...

By Eric J. Conn

by: Eric J. Conn

What do manufacturers, nursing homes, and chemical companies have in common?  They all represent industries receiving special enforcement scrutiny from today’s OSHA.

OSHA is targeting manufacturers under a major Recordkeeping Enforcement National Emphasis Program (Recordkeeping NEP).  OSHA launched the Recordkeeping NEP at the end of 2009, originally selecting inspection targets across a wide array of industries.  A senior OSHA official has explained that “there are several different goals here.  One is just to find out what’s going on.  Another is to send a ...

By: Stuart M. Gerson

On May 16, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Schindler Elevator Corp. v. United States ex rel. Kirk (pdf), holding that the public disclosure bar of the False Claims Act (FCA) is triggered by a federal agency’s written response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. This important, and much awaited, decision makes it clear that an agency’s FOIA response constitutes a “report” for purposes of the FCA’s public disclosure bar, which forecloses private parties from bringing qui tam whistleblower suits to recover falsely or ...

by Teiko Shigezumi and Carrie Corcoran

The EEOC recently published its long-awaited final regulations (the “Regulations”) and interpretive guidance for the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (the “ADAAA”), which became effective on January 1, 2009.  The Regulations significantly alter the analysis of “disability” under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“the “ADA”) and reflect Congress’ intention to expand the ADA’s coverage.  The ADAAA retained the ADA’s definition of “disability” as a physical or mental impairment that ...