How do you determine when an employee is impaired at work? How do you detect drug use in a remote work environment? When can you ask an employee to take a drug test? Partners Tracey Diamond and Evan Gibbs sat down with Squarespace Senior Counsel Larissa Boz to talk about the popular Max series Industry and managing employee performance and drug use.

Continue Reading Max TV Series <em>Industry</em> and Drugs in the Workplace

Q. Do temporary workers have workplace protections in New Jersey?

A. Yes. On February 6, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed Assembly Bill No. A1474 / S511 (also known as the Temporary Workers’ Bill of Rights). The Bill of Rights establishes several new labor and employment protections for the state’s 125,000+ temporary workers. Continue Reading New Jersey Enacts “Temporary Workers’ Bill of Rights”

Q. May employees use abusive language when raising grievances about working conditions?

A. In many circumstances, the answer is (again) yes. On May 1, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) overruled its July 2020 decision that changed the standard for cases involving “abusive employee conduct” during labor disputes and negotiations, reverting back to a test that it used in some form or another for approximately 70 years. In its decision, the NLRB found that an employee did not lose National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) Section 7 protections when he used strong language and acted less than civil when raising grievances about working conditions.

Continue Reading NLRB Returns to Former Precedent on Protected Union Activity

Most companies know that they can’t demote or fire an employee because of their race or religion. But how can companies avoid making decisions based on unconscious bias? Partners Tracey Diamond and Evan Gibbs sat down with CyberRisk Alliance VP of People Ying Wong to talk about the popular Netflix show Partner Track, workplace diversity, and unconscious bias.

Continue Reading Unconscious Bias and Netflix’s <em>Partner Track</em>

What risks do companies face for failing to timely and sometimes appropriately investigate workplace complaints? In the first video recording of the Hiring to Firing Podcast, Partners Tracey Diamond and Evan Gibbs sit down with DS Smith General Counsel for North America Josh Burnette to talk about the popular Netflix show Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and workplace whistleblowing complaints.

Continue Reading Workplace Whistleblowing Complaints and Netflix’s <em>Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story</em>

The Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division recently suffered another setback in its most recent effort to secure criminal convictions for labor-side violations of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Having finally secured a successful criminal conviction, which came by way of plea deal and deferred prosecution agreement, the DOJ proceeded to trial in Maine against four home health executives who the government alleged had conspired to enter into a no-poach agreement and fix wages paid to home health aides. After a two-week trial, the jury acquitted all four of the defendants, marking the third time the DOJ has failed to convince a jury to convict defendants for alleged Section 1 violations in the labor market.

Continue Reading DOJ Fails to Convict in No-Poach/Wage Fixing Case

Published in Law360 on March 28, 2023. © Copyright 2023, Portfolio Media, Inc., publisher of Law360. Reprinted here with permission.

George Costanza, a character from the classic sitcom “Seinfeld,” is the original “quiet quitter,” a term used for employees who do the bare minimum at work. Hear from the master himself:

Continue Reading Water Cooler Talk: Quiet Quitting Insights From ‘Seinfeld’

What responsibilities do managers and coworkers have to prevent or stop harassment in the workplace? Is silence just as bad as the harassment itself? Partners Tracey Diamond and Evan Gibbs sit down with Megan Bigelow, assistant general counsel at Sonesta Hotels, to talk about the popular Apple TV series The Morning Show and harassment in the workplace. Hear all this and more in Episode 13 of the Hiring to Firing Podcast!

Continue Reading Bystander Responsibility in the Era of #MeToo: Lessons Learned From Apple TV’s <em>The Morning Show</em>

George Costanza was the master at “quiet quitting” — the latest term for employees who do the bare minimum. Have your employees joined this trend? Is production down in the office? Partners Tracey Diamond and Evan Gibbs sit down with Paradies Lagardere litigation and compliance attorney Rebecca Silk to talk about the popular TV series Seinfeld and the quiet quitting trend. Hear all this and more in Episode 12 of the Hiring to Firing Podcast!

Continue Reading The Costanza Effect: What the TV Series <em>Seinfeld</em> Teaches Us About Quiet Quitting

On March 1, New York City’s “revival window” opens for survivors of gender-motivated violence. The revival window, also referred to as a “lookback period,” runs until March 1, 2025, providing survivors with two years to bring civil claims against “a party who commits, directs, enables, participates in, or conspires in the commission of a crime of violence motivated by gender,”[1] including previously time-barred claims.

Continue Reading New York City’s Revival Window Opens for Gender-Motivated Violence Survivors