Co-working or shared working spaces are being leveraged by every level of the workforce to keep up with the volatile and ever-changing business landscape. From gig workers and freelancers to project teams, modern workforce needs are being met through the short-term nature, reduced costs, and diverse and agile environments that these innovative workplaces offer. I am pleased to share with you, Making Co-Working Work, the second piece in the Space for Agility series which explores…

Hoping for 20/20 vision in the new year? Join us as we bring clarity to employment and compensation laws in Illinois, the US and abroad. This afternoon event will be held in our Chicago office on Wednesday, Dec 4. We will start with a discussion of emerging trends in advancing Diversity & Inclusion goals followed by key updates and developments on Illinois employment law, immigration law and domestic and global compensation and benefits. Following the…

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) takes effect on January 1, 2020 and imposes a wide range of new requirements for the collection and processing of personal data of California residents. Under the CCPA, “consumer” is defined broadly as a natural person who is a California resident. Assembly Bill 25, signed into law on October 11, 2019, provides a temporary and limited reprieve for employee data by establishing an exemption to the CCPA’s requirements to…

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in First Student Inc. v. NLRB suggests the judicially-created “perfectly clear” successorship standard to determine whether a company inherited its predecessor’s bargaining agreement is ripe for a challenge. A divided panel concluded that under the National Labor Relations Act, the “perfectly clear” successor standard applied to a successor employer in order to prevent employees from being “lulled” into a false sense of security or into not looking for…

Despite the hubbub, a new California law purportedly banning mandatory employment arbitration agreements does not completely change the game, and federal law still allows employers to use such agreements. On October 10, 2019, Governor Newsom signed AB 51 (to be codified as Cal. Lab. Code § 432.6(c)). The new law on its face prohibits employers from requiring California employees to arbitrate certain employment disputes, even if the employees are given the option of opting out…

Companies can be more confident that liability under the National Labor Relations Act will not flow from the misclassification of its workforce alone, thanks to a recent NLRB decision. Baker McKenzie attorneys call this welcome news for companies, but say they still must look at workforce relationships and properly classify independent contractors. In a much anticipated decision, the National Labor Relations Board recently ruled that misclassifying employees as independent contractors does not violate the National…

Companies with operations in California can exhale slightly, with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal and another California appellate court recently concluding, separately, that the rigid “ABC Test” established in Dynamex v. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County does not apply in the joint employer context.…