In 2014, the biggest headlines out of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) were the slew of regulatory and directive changes announced and finalized.  These included:

  • significant changes to the VEVRAA (veterans) and Section 503 (disabled) regulations;
  • an amendment to Executive Order 11246 (as well as new related regulations) to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the non-discrimination and affirmative action requirements;
  • a new Executive Order requiring contractors to provide  information regarding employment and labor law violations in connection with contract bids (and related other requirements);
  • release of proposed regulations that would require contractors to submit annually their compensation information by race and gender (that are expected to be finalized in early 2015);
  • an overhaul of the federal contractor compliance manual; and
  • a revised and significantly expanded compliance audit letter.

Determining what is or is not paid time under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is no easy undertaking for employers.  Whether the time involves preparatory tasks, or activities performed after the conclusion of a shift, employers face a difficult assignment in drawing the line between what activities should and should not be compensated.  Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision yesterday that provides the guidance employers need.

Georgia’s new statutory law of restrictive covenants became effective more than three years ago, on May 11, 2011.  The significance of the new law cannot be overstated.  Prior to the new law, Georgia Courts were required to follow sometimes arcane rules of construction that frequently resulted in covenants being invalidated in their entirety based on what seemed to be trivial defects.

I recently read a brief article regarding the former Captain of “The Best Damn Ship in the Navy.”  The article, an interview with Capt. D. Michael Abrashoff, formerly Captain of the USS Benfold (shown below), specifically focuses on his view that safety must be a top priority in any workplace.  As he says, even on a ship safety is something that you cannot just “order.” Rather, safety is something that has to be part of every individual’s daily thinking — from the Captain all the way down to the lowest ranking sailor.

The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (“OSHA”) recently released an advisory addressing employer and employee obligations “in the event of possible worker exposure to the Ebola virus.” Employers who believe that there is possible worker exposure to Ebola virus must implement various OSHA standards as part of a comprehensive worker protection program. The question many employers now face is: when does our workforce meet the threshold of “possible worker exposure” that would trigger implementation of these standards?

Governor Jerry Brown recently signed legislation that compels California employers to provide sick leave for their employees. The law, AB 1522 – also known as the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 (“HWHFA”) – provides that employees will be entitled to earn at least three paid days of sick leave per year and will go into effect on July 1, 2015.

The following information was sent out yesterday (August 21, 2014) by members of our Labor & Employment team in Virginia.  If you have employees in Virginia, you need to read this and consider how it may affect your company.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed Executive Order 24 on August 14, 2014, to establish an interagency task force on worker misclassification and payroll fraud.

As we have discussed in our prior blog posts in this series on the new OFCCP Regulations (which became effective on March 24, 2014), most of the new Regulations do not go into effect until the beginning of the contractor’s first plan year following March 24, 2014.  Many contractors have delayed implementing these new requirements because their new plan year has not yet begun.  The time for delaying is quickly coming to an end!

If you have a union in your workplace, or if unions have tried to organize workers in your workplace, you know that unions need ways to communicate with your employees.  Before the current digital age, unions relied primarily on communicating through informational picketing and leafleting, posters and mailings, and individual and group meeting to encourage unionization or to communicate with members and represented employees.  Today, with the modern workplace and internet-connected workers, communications can be conducted far more quickly, efficiently, cheaply and often more effectively through electronic means, such as email.  But historically, unions have not been permitted access to company email systems.  The current rule is that “employees have no statutory right to use the[ir] Employer’s e-mail system” for non-work-related purposes. If unions and the current Presidential administration get their way, that all might change.

We recently posted on one of our firm’s other blogs, Information Intersection, about the joint guidance that was recently issued by the EEOC and FTC on employment background checks.  While much of the content of both the employer and employee directed guidance is not new or surprising, these publications further…