Levy Employment Law, LLC

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Latest from Levy Employment Law, LLC

By Alexandra Lapes, Esq. On March 31, 2021, New York State joined the rising number of states to fully legalize cannabis for adult users by passing the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (“MRTA”).  Enacted just a month after New Jersey’s cannabis law passed, see our previous blog article here, the MRTA clarifies and establishes workplace standards related to cannabis including the rights and protections of both employers and employees, effective immediately.  The MRTA also…
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By Tracey I. Levy The continuation of the payroll tax credits under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”) through September 30, 2021, with an increased range of qualifying purposes, together with new guidance from the New York State Department of Labor on New York’s own COVID-19 leave requirements, can collectively leave employers in a quandary as to their legal options and obligations.  The following table overlays the requirements and eligibility criteria under the state…
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By Tracey I. Levy New York State employers face yet another payroll cost challenge as the state has now mandated, as of March 12, 2021, that employees be granted up to four hours of paid leave (separate from all existing paid time off benefits) for purposes of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.  This is in addition to the state’s mandates for employers to provide up to three two-week intervals of COVID-19 sick leave, at least a…
By Alexandra Lapes On February 22, 2021, after nearly three years of deliberation, New Jersey became the 15th state to fully legalize cannabis for recreational and medical use.  That legalization process includes new employment law protections to users of cannabis products in certain circumstances and places significant constraints on drug testing of applicants and employees. How We Got Here During the November election, 67% of New Jersey voters had approved a ballot measure legalizing adult-use…
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We invite New York, New Jersey and Connecticut employers to view the latest issue of  Takeaways, our quarterly newsletter covering the most recent employment law changes.  For winter 2020/21, those include: expansive protections of New York City job applicants and employees based on criminal history; radical change in the employment relationship for fast food workers in New York City (also see our separate blog posting on that); the most current minimum wage rates for…
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By Tracey I. Levy Employment “at will” — the ability to fire an individual for any reason or no reason at all and the individual’s right to quit at any time — has been the bedrock principle of the employment relationship in the United States throughout its history.  Collective bargaining agreements modify that relationship, contractually, in the union context.  Individual employment agreements may similarly include contractual limitations on the employment at will doctrine.  Employment laws…
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By Tracey I. Levy Employers in New York State may have to pay employees at full salary for more than six weeks of COVID-19 leave (in addition to all other paid leave benefits offered by the employer or mandated by law) under new guidance issued by the New York State Department of Labor (“NYS DOL”) on January 20, 2021.  This is precisely the position that we flagged as a troubling open issue in our prior…
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By Alexandra Lapes New York employers responding to the pandemic may have overlooked data privacy requirements that took full effect in March 2020 as part of the Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security (“Shield”) Act.  The Shield Act requires any business handling the “private information” of New York residents to comply with broadened data breach notification requirements, and for the first time it sets specific standards covered businesses and employers should take to maintain…
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By Tracey I. Levy Employers are authorized, and to some degree required, to intrude into their employees’ personal lives and health issues as a screening tool to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace.  It is critical to remember, however, that the inquiries employers may currently be posing with regard to employees’ recent travel activity, physical health, and contacts with others represent a very limited exception to the general principle that employees in the…
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By Tracey I. Levy As a post-script to our last blog post, the latest federal COVID-19 relief package, which was signed into law on December 27, 2020, includes a short-term extension of the FFCRA tax credit that offers some additional financial relief for New York State employers.  As we previously discussed, the paid leave requirements of the FFCRA are set to expire December 31, 2020, and the new COVID-19 relief package allows those requirements…