As featured in #WorkforceWednesday: This week, we’re mapping out how Local Law 144 applies to every employer with employees in New York City using artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, or a similar computational process to screen candidates for employment or employees for promotion within the city.
Continue Reading Video: New York City Employers Prepare for AI Bias Law – Employment Law This Week
On January 26, 2023, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) released guidance entitled Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0) (the “AI RMF”), intended to help organizations and individuals in the design, development, deployment, and use of AI systems. The AI RMF, like the White House’s recently published Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, is not legally binding. Nevertheless, as state and local regulators begin enforcing rules governing the use of AI systems, industry professionals will likely turn to NIST’s voluntary guidance when performing risk assessments of AI systems, negotiating contracts with vendors, performing audits on AI systems, and monitoring the use AI systems.
Continue Reading NIST Publishes Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework
As we recently reported, on December 9, 2022, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Production (“DCWP”) announced that it was postponing enforcement of the Automated Employment Decision Tools (“AEDT”) law, until April 15, 2023, due to the high volume of public comments it received regarding its proposed rules.
Continue Reading New Proposed Rules for NYC’s Automated Employment Decision Tools Law
As we previously noted, New York City’s Automated Employment Decision Tools Law (“AEDT Law”), regulating employers’ use of automated employment decision tools, with the aim of curbing bias in hiring and promotions, had an effective date of January 1, 2023. In late September 2022, we reported about the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (“DCWP”) issuing a Notice of Public Hearing and Opportunity to Comment on Proposed Rules related to the AEDT law. The hearing subsequently took place on November 4, 2022, and dozens of organizations and individuals submitted comments, leaving many observers wondering whether the comments would impact the quickly approaching January 1, 2023 enforcement date and how the DCWP would interpret the law.
Continue Reading New York City’s Automated Employment Decision Tools Law Enforcement Postponed Until April 15, 2023
On October 31, 2022, the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) released Memorandum GC 23-02 urging the Board to interpret existing Board law to adopt a new legal framework to find electronic monitoring and automated or algorithmic management practices illegal if such monitoring or management practices interfere with protected activities under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (“Act”). The Board’s General Counsel stated in the Memorandum that “[c]lose, constant surveillance and management through electronic means threaten employees’ basic ability to exercise their rights,” and urged the Board to find that an employer violates the Act where the employer’s electronic monitoring and management practices, when viewed as a whole, would tend to “interfere with or prevent a reasonable employee from engaging in activity protected by the Act.” Given that position, it appears that the General Counsel believes that nearly all electronic monitoring and automated or algorithmic management practices violate the Act.
Continue Reading NLRB General Counsel Seeks to Limit Employers’ Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace, Following the Recent Regulatory Trends
Employers with employees in the District of Columbia have until Monday, October 31, 2022, to comply with a specific notice provision contained in the D.C. Non-Compete Clarification Amendment Act of 2022 (B24-0256) (the “Amendment”).
Continue Reading D.C. Employers: Have You Complied With the Non-Compete Clarification Amendment Act?
On Tuesday October 4, 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (“OSTP”) released a document entitled “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights: Making Automated Systems Work for the American People” (the “Blueprint”) together with a companion document “From Principles to Practice: A Technical Companion to the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights” (the “Technical Companion”).
Continue Reading The White House Releases “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights: Making Automated Systems Work for the American People”
On Friday, September 23, 2022, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (“DCWP”) released a Notice of Public Hearing and Opportunity to Comment on Proposed Rules related to its Automated Employment Decision Tool law (the “AEDT Law”), which goes into effect on January 1, 2023. As we previously wrote, the City passed the AEDT Law to regulate employers’ use of automated employment decision tools, with the aim of curbing bias in hiring and promotions; as written, however, it contains many ambiguities, which has left covered employers with open questions about compliance.
Continue Reading NYC Issues Proposed Rules for Its Automated Employment Decision Tools Law
UPDATE – On July 27, 2022, Mayor Bowser signed the Non-Compete Clarification Amendment Act of 2022. The approved Act must now be sent to Congress for a period of 30 days before becoming effective as law.
Washington, D.C. employers will not need to scrap all their non-compete agreements after all. On July 12, 2022, the D.C. Council (the “Council”) passed the Non-Compete Clarification Amendment Act of 2022 (B24-0256) (the “Amendment”), which among other things, tempers the District’s near-universal ban on non-compete provisions to permit restrictions for highly compensated employees. For further analysis on the original D.C. Ban on Non-Compete Act, please see our previous articles here and here.
The Council delayed the initial ban several times in response to feedback from employer groups. However, barring an unlikely veto or Congressional action during the mandatory review period, the amended ban will take effect as of October 1, 2022. We detail the key revisions to the ban below.
Continue Reading Washington, D.C. Scales Back Ban on Non-Competes
On June 7, 2022, the District of Columbia Council approved the Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Support Act of 2022 (“Act”), which includes an increase to the number of weeks of paid leave available to eligible employees through the Universal Paid Leave Act (“UPLA”) (also known as “Paid Family Leave,” or “PFL”). Generally, as we previously explained, PFL-eligible employees are those who spend at least 50 percent of their work time – whether full time or part time – in D.C.
Continue Reading UPDATE: Washington, D.C. Universal Paid Leave Increases Will Begin October 2022