Cybersecurity incidents routinely grab headlines, and for good reason. These incidents often lead to exposure of large volumes of sensitive data, or significant monetary losses. For example, this blog previously discussed how fraudster access to online banking platforms could lead to lawsuits between banks and customers over who is ultimately liable for unauthorized transfers. There is no doubt that the internet has made it easier for fraudsters to target organizations from afar. However, even though…

On April 1, 2019, the Department of Labor announced a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) for Part 791 of Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations for the Fair Labor Standards Act that will “ revise and clarify the responsibilities of employers and joint employers to employees in joint employer arrangements”.  This regulation had not been meaningfully revised since 1958. The DOL has been busy, indeed.  This NPRM joins two others that…

On March 28, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to clarify and amend the agency rules regarding the regular rate provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act that have not been comprehensively revised in more than 50 years.  Yesterday’s announcement was expected, per previous posts on this blog (11/2/18 & 2/5/19).  The DOL states that the proposal will: clarify and better define the regular rate for today’s workplace…

Part 1 of this blog post, discussed a decision of a Canadian provincial supreme court affirming an arbitrator’s decision that the medially- authorized use of medical cannabis created a risk of the employee’s impairment on the jobsite. In that case, the employer was determined to not have the “reasonable accommodation” of giving an employee who was medically using marijuana a safety-sensitive job because the employer was not able to readily measure impairment from cannabis…

Recently, an employer came to the firm with a letter  from the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD).  The letter was unlike any other I had seen WHD send out during my career or since I retired.  After checking, I learned it is a new approach to compliance by the WHD. The letter’s key paragraph explains its purpose this way: “This office has information that you may be engaged in compensation practices that do not…

A hat tip to Bennet Jones, LLP for its March 6, 2019, blog post  entitled, “Inability to measure and mitigate impairment from medical cannabis means employers can avoid accommodation requests from employees.”  The post discussed a decision from the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, affirming a decision of a labor arbitrator in IBEW, Local 1620 v Lower Churchill Transmission Construction Employers’ Association Inc., 2019 NLSC 48 (2/22/2019). I know nothing about Canadian law — especially…

On Thursday, March 7, 2019, the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding certain of the “white collar” exemptions from the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.  In January 2019, we noted that this would be coming. The proposed rule would increase the minimum salary under the salary basis test from the current $455 per week  ($23,660 annualized) to $679 per week…