Closures of schools and day care centers during the COVID-19 pandemic have put heightened focus on the child care challenges faced by working parents. The California legislature is aiming to address these challenges by introducing a bill that, if passed, would require employers to provide subsidized backup child care benefits to employees. While this may help working parents, it also would place additional burdens on employers, many of whom are already over-taxed by the increased…
Many employers use rounding methods to adjust the hours that an employee works to the nearest time increment, such as every five or ten minutes. The California Supreme Court has ruled, however, that this rounding practice is impermissible at the meal period. Equally as troubling for employers, the Court also held that time records showing a noncompliant meal period raise a “rebuttable presumption” of meal period violations.…
In January 2021, New York City amended the Fair Chance Act to expand protections for both applicants and employees with criminal histories. The amendments take effect July 29, 2021, adding additional protections for workers in the state. Prior to the amendment, NYC’s Fair Chance Act prohibited employers from making an inquiry about an applicants’ criminal conviction records until after a conditional offer of employment is extended. Then, an employer was required to balance a variety…
Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (“Title III”) prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in public accommodations, requiring that individuals with a disability be offered the “full and equal enjoyment . . . of any place of public accommodation.” 42 U.S.C. § 12182(a). As we previously discussed, the 30-year-old statute does not directly address whether “places of public accommodation” include websites, mobile applications, and other emerging web-based applications and…
HuntonAK Labor and Employment Partners Bob Dumbacher and Kurt Powell have been recognized in the most recent publication of Georgia Super Lawyers 2021.
Bob Dumbacher, Employment and Labor, Rising Star
Kurt Powell, Employment and Labor
Super Lawyers acknowledges outstanding practice group lawyers “who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.”
Bob and Kurt were both recently recognized by Benchmark Litigation as Labor and Employment Stars, Georgia, 2020.
Read the Firm…
With the ushering in of a new administration, several changes have quickly taken place at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Within hours of taking office, the Biden administration removed Trump appointee NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb and replaced him with interim General Counsel Peter Ohr. (Ohr may only serve as acting General Counsel for 40 days, per the National Labor Relations Act, unless the administration submits a nomination to the Senate.) At least one…
In a recent post, we wrote about a final rule issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) during the last days of the Trump administration addressing the appropriate test for classifying independent contractors under the FLSA. In the post, we noted that the future of the rule was in question because it was not set to go into effect until March 8, 2021. This delayed implementation provided an opportunity for the incoming Biden administration…
Since taking office, President Biden has issued Executive Orders covering topics from climate change to mask mandates. Some of these new Executive Orders are aimed at eliminating discrimination and promoting equity at the federal level. These directives will likely result in new requirements for private sector companies that are government contractors or subcontractors, and could require them to revise practices and policies in order to keep, or procure new, government contracts.…
Last month, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the Ban On Non-Compete Agreements Amendment Act of 2020 (“the Act”), which becomes effective next week. This law is a statutory ban on non-compete agreements that has the strength of similar bans in California, North Dakota, and Oklahoma.
The Act applies to all D.C. private employers and applies broadly to most employees who perform work in D.C. or whom a prospective employer reasonably anticipates will perform work in D.C. …
Last month, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a proposed class of thirty-seven employees for failure to satisfy Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23’s numerosity requirement.
“Much ink has been spilled” over the requirements of Rule 23, the Seventh Circuit noted. But only a small share of those cases concern the numerosity requirement. Most opinions deal with commonality or typicality. Recognizing this paucity, the court took occasion to outline the parameters of the numerosity…