In the first such decision rendered since the coronavirus pandemic first struck the U.S. back in March, a federal court in Pittsburgh ruled early this week that a statewide shutdown and stay-at-home order issued by the governor of Pennsylvania is unconstitutional. U.S. District Court judge William Stickman IV found that despite being well-intentioned, the order…
Read More »Another law taking effect on October 1 is in the state of Maryland. The state’s Mini-WARN act, which Governor Larry Hogan allowed to become law without his signature back in May of this year. Senate bill 780, which now mandates compliance with the formerly voluntary Maryland Economic Stabilization Act, requires that employers that implement a…
Read More »On Tuesday of this week, Judge Gregory Woods of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that portions of the Department of Labor (DOL) regulation on the issue was “arbitrary and capricious” and in conflict with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). New York v. Scalia, in which 17 different…
Read More »The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in a rare opinion letter issued last week narrowed the scope in which it will initiate legal action against businesses it believes have engaged in “pattern & practice” discrimination. Although much of the opinion is technical in nature and deals with technical requirements to bringing action under Title VII…
Read More »A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has finally put an end to a nine-year old court case in California where the Council for Education and Research on Toxics (CERT) challenged a state regulation issued by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) exempting chemicals in coffee from being listed as carcinogens as required…
Read More »Every so often, we like to remind our small business owners of some of the myriad mandates and dictates with which they must comply. One of those that we all can easily overlook is the requirement to post certain information relating federal and/or state laws. Federal law requires that all employers with less than 50…
Read More »Just a week after asking in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin for clarity on President Trump’s Executive Order allowing deferral of Social Security payroll taxes, the US Chamber of Commerce this week came out in opposition to it. In a letter sent this week to Mnuchin, Speaker of the House Pelosi and Senate…
Read More »Taking a different tack, the DC City Council on July 28 passed and the Mayor signed the Protecting Businesses and Workers from COVID-19 Emergency Amendment Act of 2020. This new law mandated that employers within the Nation’s Capital implement new social distancing measures and worker protection policies within one week, by August 20. Further, it…
Read More »Although signed into law back in 2011 by President Obama during his first term in office, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) or at least certain aspects of it are still being implemented by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). USDA guidance governing it is still being challenged, with the latest suit filed just…
Read More »There’s precious little time, but the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) has given employers a deadline of tomorrow, August 15, 2020 to fill out and submit Form UCB-18823-E for employees who filed their initial COVID-19 related unemployment claims for weeks after May 15, 2020. The department recently announced that employers must move quickly to…
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