Q.  Can my company require its employees to sign an arbitration agreement mandating that they arbitrate all employment disputes, and limiting their ability to participate in a class action against the company?

A.  On May 21, in a 5-4 opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that arbitration agreements in which…

Pay equity is a hot topic – and not just in employment and HR circles.  Both inside and outside of the courts, the issue has gained national attention and is spurring legislators in states across the country to act. Recent developments are a timely reminder to all employers to start…

On Wednesday, May 23, from 3 – 4 pm ET, Troutman Sanders attorneys, Alan Wingfield, Wendy Sugg, and Meagan Mihalko will present a webinar discussing employment-purpose background screening laws. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act imposes technical paperwork requirements on employers desiring to obtain background screenings, and many millions of…

We wrote recently about the Trump Administration’s efforts to roll back the Obama-era NLRB’s workplace handbook and rule restrictions. It’s time to update you further on where that effort stands.

As a reminder, the Obama NLRB held in December 2017 in The Boeing Company case that facially-neutral employment policies and…

Q: Can I require an employee to do work while the employee is on FMLA leave?  What if the employee volunteers to work while on leave?

A: Under most circumstances, employees should not be required or permitted to perform work while on leave.  The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides eligible employees a maximum of twelve weeks unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and personal medical reasons in a twelve month period.  During that time, employers are prohibited from interfering with, restraining, or denying the exercise of or the attempt to exercise, any rights provided under the FMLA.

Q.  Do I need to provide paid sick leave to employees in New Jersey?

A.  Last week, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law the New Jersey Paid Sick Leave Act, mandating paid sick leave for full and part-time workers in the Garden State. Similar to the laws in other states, the New Jersey law provides for employees to earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Employees may use up to 40 hours of earned sick leave in a benefit year.  They may also carry over up to 40 hours of earned sick leave from one year to the next.  Earned sick leave is not paid upon termination, unless a company policy or collective bargaining agreement provides otherwise.

In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court embraced a standard that presumes workers in California are employees instead of independent contractors. The April 30, 2018 decision in Dynamex Operations West Inc. v. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County moves away from a more flexible classification test that had…

Q.  Am I permitted to ask about an applicant’s salary history in Philadelphia?

A.  In a ruling that could provide a roadmap for challenging salary history bans in other jurisdictions, a Philadelphia federal judge issued an opinion on April 30 invalidating a major element of the Philadelphia salary history ordinance…

Q.  How do I help my company avoid unconscious bias in the workplace?

A.  A bias is a prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group as compared with another. We all have biases. Biases can be based on any number of stereotypes, whether it is race, gender, age, national origin, religion, etc.  In a perfect world, individuals would not act on their biases, however, our world is far from perfect and employees can and do bring their biases to work.

About one year ago, President Trump signed the “Buy American Hire American” (BAHA) Executive Order to “create higher wages and employment rates for workers in the United States, and to protect their economic interests.”  Under the auspices of BAHA, the U.S. immigration landscape has seen many changes in rules, policies,…