Today, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that it will publish on May 23, 2016 its Final Rule to update the federal regulations defining the overtime exemption for executive, administrative, and professional employees or otherwise known as ”white-collar” employees. The pre-publication version of the Final Rule is, however, available now. The final rule will become […]
On May 11, 2016, President Obama signed into law the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (“DTSA”) which amends the Economic Espionage Act (18 U.S.C. § 1831, et seq.). The DTSA creates a private cause of action for trade secret misappropriation under federal law and opens a direct avenue for trade secret cases to proceed […]
On March 9, 2015, Governor Scott Walker signed Act 1 (Wisconsin’s Right-to-Work legislation) into law, which allows workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement to not pay union dues if they choose not to do so (our previous blog on the law can be found here). Opponents of the law immediately went to work trying […]
In a recent decision, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) struck down an employer’s work rule that prohibited employees from recording workplace meetings and conversations without management approval, finding that such a policy could prevent employees from engaging in protected activity, which is protected by Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). In […]
Attorneys Joseph Gumina and Erica Reib authored a Labor and Employment Law article series entitled, “Anticipating and Managing Wage and Hour Pitfalls” on InsideCounsel.com. This monthly magazine serves general counsel and other top in-house legal professionals and provides strategic tools to help them better manage their legal departments. To learn more about the wage and […]
On Monday, December 15, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued rules that will speed up the union election process. Although the rules do not take effect until April 14, 2015, employers should be aware of them and start preparing for the changes now. Under the current rules, representation petitions are filed seeking to […]
In EEOC v. United Airlines, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that an employer, as part of its reasonable accommodation obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), must reassign a disabled employee to an open and available position regardless of whether there might be a better or more qualified applicant for […]
Almost 99% of today’s information created by businesses is generated and stored electronically. The ability to easily and conveniently store large amounts of data has created a hidden liability that did not exist in the age of when companies maintained its information primarily in paper format. The effect of this hidden liability is twofold. First, […]
The EEOC is statutorily obligated to enter into confidential conciliation efforts with an employer prior to commencing a lawsuit. Only if the EEOC is unable to secure a conciliation agreement acceptable to it may it bring a civil action, as conciliation is a condition precedent to the EEOC’s power to sue. The purpose of this […]
OSHA has literally opened the door for union organizers to enter an employer’s non-union facility during an OSHA walkaround inspection. In a February 21, 2013 interpretation letter, Richard E. Fairfax, OSHA’s Deputy Assistant Secretary, opined that employees without a collective bargaining agreement may designate a person affiliated with a union or community organization to act […]
