Labor & Employment Developments Blog

Training repayment agreement provisions (TRAPs) are a hot topic lately. These agreements, which may be stand alone or included in a broader employment agreement, require employees who have completed an employer provided training program to reimburse the employer for some or all of the cost of the training if they leave within a certain timeframe.

On September 27, 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 1162 into law. This law builds upon and expands the existing SB 973, a 2020 law, which requires employers with 100 or more employees to submit pay data reports to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

Effective January 1, 2023, employers with 100 or more employees will be required to submit pay data reports to the Civil Rights Department within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency on or before the second Wednesday of May 2023, and for each year thereafter. This requirement ...

Today’s episode will consider a couple of controversial topics. First, the CDC recently updated its COVID-19 guidance for the workplace in some surprising ways. Because many employers defaulted to the CDC for workplace guidance and because emotions continue to run high regarding these issues, employers should be aware of the changes.

Noncompete agreements are a hot topic these days. Unfortunately, many employers who have noncompete agreements in place have not taken the time to consider their strategy for enforcement. In this episode, five thoughts about noncompete strategy will be considered, including:

In this new podcast episode, recent cases and news from the world of Labor & Employment Law will be discussed, including

With courts still backed up from COVID shutdowns, mediation is a popular option to resolve litigation. 

In this new podcast episode, recent cases and news from the world of Labor & Employment Law will be discussed, including:

Religious Accommodations:  Does an employer have to accommodate an employee who cannot work on Sundays and what constitutes an undue hardship. The Third Circuit considered these issues in Groff v. DeJoy.

Berling v. Gravity Diagnostics: In this recent Kentucky case, a jury awarded an employee over $450,000 when his employer ignored his request that it forego giving him a birthday party due to the employee’s panic disorder and later terminated his employment.

On March 3, 2022, the President signed into law the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021. A product of the Me Too Movement, the new law allows individuals bringing sexual assault and sexual harassment claims who entered into predispute arbitration agreements or class- or collective-action waivers to reject those agreements and waivers and bring those claims in court and via a class or collective action. The law applies to any claims arising after the date of enactment. 

The so-called gig economy is subject to a great deal of uncertainty in the labor and employment law context. The key issue is whether workers are properly classified as employees and subject to various labor and employment laws or whether they are independent contractors with a lot of flexibility but far less legal protection. This is not a new issue but the prevalence and popularity of gig economy businesses like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and others have brought the issue into the spotlight.

The traditional test for independent contractor status is multifactored and focuses on the issue of ...

In this new podcast episode, recent cases and news from the world of Labor & Employment Law will be discussed, including:

Religious Accommodation: New cases addressing employer obligations in the area of religious accommodations under Title VII are discussed as well as the EEOC’s new guidance on COVID-19 vaccination accommodations, which was issued on March 1, 2022. 

You can find the EEOC’s complete guidance here.

The new vaccine accommodation guidance begins at Letter “L” – scroll down.

Social Media: The media recently reported on the termination of a longtime ...