The bad news is that your company may still be recovering from trying to compile and organize all of the EEO-1 Component 2 pay data for submission by September 30, 2019. The good news, however, is that the EEOC has announced that it will no longer collect Component 2 pay data in the future. (Everyone can let out a collective sigh of relief now!) To the extent they haven’t already done so, companies are still required to submit Component 2 pay data for years 2017 and 2018 this year, but they will not be required to do so on an ongoing basis.

Continue Reading The EEOC Will Not Collect EEO-1 Pay Data In The Future

In July, we reported that a three-judge panel for the Ninth Circuit withdrew its holding in Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising Int’l that Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court—the landmark California Supreme Court decision that makes it harder for companies to rely on independent contractors—applies retroactively. Rather than answering the question of Dynamex‘s retroactivity, the Court stated its intent to file an order certifying that question.

Continue Reading The Ninth Circuit Asks The California Supreme Court If Dynamex Applies Retroactively

Join us in our new Palo Alto office for a breakfast briefing on October 30 as we explore the top 5 trends impacting multinational employers in EMEA.

Hear from leading practitioners in 5 key EMEA jurisdictions – France, Germany, South Africa, Spain and the United Kingdom – as we address these key developments:

1. Tips for operating under new political leadership
2. Navigating significant labor reform
3. Managing a modern workforce, from contingent workers to outsourcing service models
4. Addressing the gender pay gap, including gender pay legislation and expectations
5. Complying with changes in termination and anti-harassment legislation

Click here to view the invitation.

On September 24, 2019, the Department of Labor (finally) issued the final rule on the minimum salary threshold required for employees to qualify for the Fair Labor Standards Act’s “white-collar” exemptions.

The final rule:

  • Raises the new minimum salary threshold to $35,568 per year ($684 per week). The previous salary threshold, which had been in place since 2004, was $23,660 ($455 per week).
  • Raises the “highly compensated” employee salary threshold from $100,000 to $107,432 per year.
  • Allows employers to count certain non-discretionary bonuses, incentives, and commissions to satisfy up to 10% of an employee’s salary level.
  • Does not impact the job duties test.
  • Is estimated to make an additional 1.3 million more workers eligible for overtime.
  • Will take effect quickly — on January 1, 2020.

Continue Reading DOL Issues Long-Awaited Final Overtime Rule

This summer the U.S. Women’s Soccer team won more than the World Cup – they’ve had tremendous success in garnering public support in their bid for equal pay. However, beyond the star power of Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, pay equity continues to be a hot button issue for employers in the U.S.

We’re pleased to share a recent Bloomberg article authored by Robert Lewis, Emily Harbison and Caroline Burnett that examines the employment law landscape for pay equity-related laws in the U.S.

Read our article here.

Today California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a landmark bill making it more difficult for companies to engage independent contractors. (See our previous coverage HERE.) Assembly Bill 5 “will help reduce worker misclassification — workers being wrongly classified as ‘independent contractors’ rather than employees, which erodes basic worker protections like the minimum wage, paid sick days and health insurance benefits,” Newsom wrote in a statement.

Continue Reading The Controversial ABC Test From Dynamex Is Codified In Law — California’s Gig Economy Braces For Change

This week, the National Labor Relations Board finally came to its senses and adopted the contract coverage test for cases alleging an employer had unlawfully, unilaterally changed employees’ terms and conditions of employment. MV Transportation, Inc. 368 NLRB No. 66 (2019). This week’s decision is likely to change the forum unions select for the enforcement of their labor agreements. Ironically, the decision may compel employers to consider additional bargaining rather than litigation before an arbitrator given there is little opportunity to appeal an adverse arbitration award.

Continue Reading The NLRB Acknowledges The Inevitable And Adopts The Contract Coverage Test

As previously detailed here, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 Epic Systems decision established that requiring employees to waive their right to pursue collective or class actions does not violate the National Labor Relations Act’s “catchall” protection—the right to engage in “concerted activity”—and courts must enforce arbitration agreements as written.

The Supreme Court not only confirmed the legality of class action waivers under the Federal Arbitration Act, but it also narrowly construed the NLRA’s catchall provision as focused on the right to organize unions and bargain collectively in the workplace.

The Court’s holding that the right to engage in such “concerted activities” does not guarantee collective or class action procedures underpins a recent NLRB decision concerning issues of first impression: imposing and requiring as a condition for continued employment a new class action waiver rule in response to collective action.

Continue Reading Applying Epic Systems, The NLRB Adopts Employer-Friendly Arbitration Stance

Modern slavery exists today in many forms, including forced labor, involuntary servitude, debt bondage, human trafficking and child labor. According to the Walk Free Foundation’s Global Slavery
Index, published with input from the United Nations’ International Labor Organization and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), as of 2016, an estimated 40.3 million men, women and children were trapped in modern slavery, including 24.9 million people who  were victims of forced labor including in global supply chains.

Slavery is, of course, not the only issue affecting global supply chains. As tragically demonstrated by the 2012 fire at the Tazreen Fashions garment factory in Bangladesh that killed at least 111 people, and the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh that killed over 1,130 people and injured more than 2,500 people, substandard and unsafe working conditions in factories in which goods are manufactured by low cost labor can result in the same types of risks, and human misery.

An increasing number of national governments around the world have proposed or enacted legislation to address this issue, thus creating new areas of potential legal exposure to multinational companies. Our article — Global Efforts to Combat Human Rights Abuses in Supply Chains — highlights new regulations around the world protecting human rights, particularly those of laborers, in the context of global supply chains, and recommends ways for multinational companies to examine whether they have obligations to take action under these new laws and become compliant if they do.

Click here to view the article.

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In August, the National Labor Relations Board issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to address three rather limited situations involving employee representation issues. These proposed rules follow 70-plus years of experimentation with a hodgepodge of ad hoc one-off decisions, dramatic changes and frequent reversals in the process of enabling employees to exercise their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

Read more here.

This article was originally published on Law360.com.