Labor & Employment Blog

The EEOC recently issued its final regulation to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA). The PWFA went into effect on June 27, 2023, and the final regulation goes into effect on June 18, 2024. Chamberlain’s previous alert on this topic can be found here.

The PWFA requires businesses that employ fifteen (15) or more employees to make reasonable accommodations for an employee’s or job applicant’s known limitations related to “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions” unless doing so would impose an “undue hardship” on the employer. “Undue ...

Effective July 1, 2024, the United States Department of Labor’s Final Rule will sharply increase the minimum salary amount that employers must pay in order to classify an employee as exempt from overtime pay under the common “white collar” exemptions (executive, administrative, and professional) and the highly compensated employee (HCE) exemption to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The Final Rule consists of two specific phases of increases and is expected to impact over four million workers by 2025.

If the Final Rule goes into effect, the minimum salary ...

Last week, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) released the final version of the Employee or Independent Contractor Classification (the “Final Rule”). The Final Rule is published in the Federal Register and will take effect on March 11, 2024.

The Final Rule rescinds the broader rule issued during former President Donald Trump’s presidency, which focused heavily on the worker’s control over the work and opportunity for profit or loss in determining whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Under the Final ...

Last week, the Department of Labor (DOL) released a proposed rule that, if adopted, will raise the salary requirements for certain exempt employees. The DOL estimates its new rule could extend overtime protections to more than three million workers.

Most employers already know the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires covered employers to pay most employees an overtime premium for all hours worked over forty in a workweek. This general rule, however, does not apply to employees in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity, as long as the employee earns a ...

On August 18, 2023, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a much-awaited decision that broadens the scope of potential liability for employers under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. For about thirty years, the Fifth Circuit has applied a more restrictive standard for disparate-treatment liability under Title VII’s anti-discrimination provision—requiring an employee to prove alleged discrimination in connection with an “ultimate employment decision,” such as hiring, granting leave, discharging, promoting, or compensating. No more. The en banc Fifth ...

On August 2, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) changed the standard for deciding whether an employer’s workplace policy is lawful. In the recent Stericycle decision, the NLRB issued a split ruling reversing a Trump-era standard that made it easier for employers to defend workplace policies against claims that the policies deter employees from exercising their rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). Among other rights, Section 7 of the NLRA guarantees most non-managerial employees the right to engage in “concerted ...

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) goes into effect on June 27, 2023, and will provide additional protection for pregnant job applicants and employees. If your business has fifteen (15) or more employees, the PWFA will require you to provide reasonable accommodations for job applicants and employees for “known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions,” unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship.

The PWFA requires a reasonable accommodation regardless of whether the pregnant applicant or employee has a ...

On April 28, 2023, new employee remedies will take effect under the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act, a.k.a. the PUMP Act. The PUMP Act expands the rights of nursing employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by making it unlawful for an employer to deny a covered employee a needed break to pump or a private place to pump.

The FLSA already requires employers to provide reasonable break time to employees to express breast milk in a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from public view and free from intrusion. For one year after a child’s ...

If you, like most employers, have included non-disparagement or confidentiality provisions in your severance and settlement agreements, you will be interested in a recent decision from the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”). On February 21, 2023, in a 4-1 decision the NLRB held an employer violates Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) when it offers a severance agreement with non-disparagement and confidentiality provisions that would restrict employees’ exercise of their NLRA rights. While some employers mistakenly believe the NLRA ...

OSHA COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard

Effective today, January 26, 2022, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has withdrawn the COVID-19 vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard (ETS) issued on November 5, 2021, which required all employers with 100 or more employees to implement either a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy or a policy allowing employees to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing and face covering as an alternative to vaccination.

Yesterday, OSHA filed a motion to dismiss the ...