Last week was a fairly newsworthy week at the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). For federal contractors who long had to deal with the secrecy and “gotcha” attitude of the prior administration, the new administration is a sigh of relief.
In January the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it would pursue anti-poaching agreements as a violation of antitrust law. The Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division made it official last week by issuing an announcement about its case against several companies in violation of the law. The DOJ announced it had filed a complaint against Knorr-Bremse AG, Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation, and Faiveley Transport for conspiring to not compete for...
Calculating time worked for non-exempt employees who travel for their job is a challenge for many employers. On April 12, the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division issued an opinion letter that tackles this question.
On Monday, April 2, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) issued a 5-4 decision ruling that an auto dealership’s service advisors that greeted and advised customers on their auto service needs were covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) special exemption addressing auto dealership personnel. This decision overturned a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in 2016 that these service providers were not covered by the FLSA’s exemption and were eligible for overtime. At a...
We’ve discussed impending changes in the way salaries are approached in today’s market. It is understood that many states are banning and have banned the practice of using salary history as a factor during salary negotiations. On Monday, a federal appeals court ruled that salary history cannot be considered as a factor to justify wage inequalities between men and women. To put it plainly, employers can no longer justify paying a man more than a woman based on what she...
Since 2012, McDonald’s Corporation and the NLRB have been embroiled in the question of what joint employment is. The question is over whether the McDonald’s Corporation as a franchisor could be held responsible for allegedly wrongful employment practices of its franchisees.
Last week the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced the rollout of a “new” pilot program called the Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program. This program offers employers a process to self-report wage and hour violations with the DOL to clear them up without being exposed to as many potential damages and monetary penalties.
Following the leads of the U.S. 2nd Circuit and 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals (which includes Michigan) continues the expansion of the definition of “sex” under Title VII and recognizes that discrimination on the basis of transgender and transitioning status or gender identity is discrimination on the basis of sex.
When promoting an employee to a new position, what pay should be established? Many employers have policies such as “up to 14% from previous base when promoting, including merit.” A policy like that becomes especially problematic when the employee being promoted from one position to another is not even close to the pay range of other employees in the same title.
In a case decided Monday by the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, the full court in an en banc hearing definitively decided that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covers sexual orientation as a protected class. What makes this case extremely interesting is that the EEOC and U.S. Department of Justice both filed briefs taking diametrically opposing positions.
Most federal gender pay discrimination cases are brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The other applicable law that was intended to address pay discrimination, the federal Equal Pay Act (EPA), was enacted before Title VII and was more narrow-focused.
ICE enforcement is ramping up. On January 10th ICE announced a new three-prong approach to conduct worksite enforcement: (1) compliance through I-9 inspections, civil fines, and referrals for debarment; (2) enforcement through the arrest of employers knowingly employing undocumented workers and the unauthorized workers; and (3) outreach, through the ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers (IMAGE) program, to instill a culture of compliance and accountability. Are you...
“Naked” no poach agreements – what are they? Naked wage-fixing or no-poaching agreements among employers, whether entered into directly or through a third-party, are illegal under the antitrust laws. That means that if the agreement is separate from or not reasonably necessary to a larger legitimate collaboration between the employers, the agreement is deemed illegal without any inquiry into its competitive effect.
Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the requirements of the ACA have profoundly impacted small employer plans (under 50 employees) by raising costs at a faster rate than large employer plans.
On May 25, 2018, the European Union’s (EU’s) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect. This new regulation expands provisions for data collection, retention, and access rights for European based employees and are much more restrictive than in the past. The GDPR was initially adopted in April 2016, and the regulation and directive were published at that time. It replaces the 1995 data protection directive. The following is a brief...