Workforce Bulletin

With the start of the New Year, employers in the hospitality sector should prepare for new state- and local- minimum wage increases for their non-exempt employees.  To help multi-jurisdictional employers easily navigate these changes, we have prepared the chart below, which summarizes the new minimum wage rates that have taken effect on January 1, 2020, unless otherwise indicated.  Check back here in June for a summary of the new minimum wage rates that will take effect July 1, 2020.

On December 1, 2019, New Jersey’s Child Victim’s Act went into effect.  This new law opens a two-year “revival” period for individuals to assert civil claims of child abuse and to file claims against institutions and individuals, even if those claims had already expired and/or were dismissed because they were filed late.  Additionally, the new law also expands the statute of limitations for victims to bring claims of child sexual abuse to age 55 or until seven years from the time that an alleged victim became aware of his/her injury, whichever comes later.  Unlike other ...

Our colleague Adam S. Forman at Epstein Becker Green has recently published a post on the Management Memo blog that will be of interest to our readers in the retail industry: “NLRB Reverses Purple Communications – Holds Employer May Restrict Employees’ Use of Email and Other Information Technology Systems.”

Following is an excerpt:

On December 17, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) ruled that an employer’s rule prohibiting use of its email system for nonbusiness purposes did not violate employees’ rights under the National Labor ...

Our colleague Steven M. Swirsky at Epstein Becker Green has recently published a post on the Management Memo blog that will be of interest to our readers in the hospitality industry: “NLRB Reverses Position on Confidentiality Concerning Workplace Investigations – Holds That Confidentiality Requirements Are Presumptively Lawful.”

Following is an excerpt:

The National Labor Relations Board, in its December 17^th decision in Apogee Retail LLC d/b/a Unique Thrift Store, has reversed its prior rule and held that employer requirements that employees treat ...

Our colleague Steven M. Swirsky at Epstein Becker Green has recently published a post on the Management Memo blog that will be of interest to our readers in the retail industry: “NLRB Issues Proposed Rule to Scale Back 2014 Expedited Election Rules.”

Following is an excerpt:

The National Labor Relations Board (“Board” or “NLRB”) has announced that it is publishing proposed changes to its Rules and Regulations that will begin to reverse the Board’s 2014 changes, which took effect in 2015, to its representation election rules and procedures commonly ...

Our colleagues Adam C. Abrahms, Brock Olson & Steven M. Swirsky at Epstein Becker Green have recently published a post on the Management Memo blog that will be of interest to our readers in the hospitality industry: “NLRB’s General Counsel Signals Major Shift in Neutrality Agreement Between Employers and Unions Seeking to Organize Their Employees.”

Following is an excerpt:

The original charges alleged that the Employer unlawfully assisted the Union in numerous ways during the Union’s 2018 organizing campaign.  The charges alleged that one such way the ...

Fiduciaries of employee benefit plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”) that appoint investment managers (“Appointing Fiduciaries”) will be interested in the opinion of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in Scalia v. WPN Corporation, et al (“WPN”) regarding their duty to monitor investment fiduciaries.  Given the potential risk related to a breach this fiduciary duty, the WPN opinion is likely to be an important one for Appointing Fiduciaries.

In WPN, the Department of Labor alleged ...

For businesses growing weary of the seemingly perpetual wave of serial ADA claims (e.g., website accessibility; gift card accessibility), thanks to recent a decision issued by a federal judge in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of New York (“EDNY”), some may believe that “Christmas came early.”  Last week, EBG achieved an impressive victory, obtaining a complete dismissal of a serial plaintiff’s class action complaint in the case Castillo v. The John Gore Organization.

In Castillo, plaintiff, a King’s County resident, who asserted that she has ...

While the seemingly endless wave of website accessibility cases filed by serial plaintiffs shows no signs of abating (a situation not helped by the United States’ Supreme Court’s denial of Domino’s Petition for Certiorari last month), those who follow accessibility law and the businesses who have been deeply affected by the relentless barrage of serial plaintiffs’ claims, have been waiting for the inevitable “next big thing” that the plaintiff’s bar would pursue en masse under Title III of the ADA.

On Thursday, October 24, we learned the answer when a new wave of ...

The New York City Commission on Human Rights (“the Commission”) published a legal enforcement guidance (“Guidance”) clarifying its standards with respect to discrimination based on actual or perceived immigration status and national origin. The Guidance applies to employers, housing providers, and providers of public accommodations.

As the Guidance explains, “[d]iscrimination based on immigration status often overlaps with discrimination based on national origin and/or religion.” Under the New York City Human Rights Law (“NYCHRL”), employers with ...