New England Biz Law Update

An employer’s arbitration agreement was unenforceable because of unconscionable terms in a confidentiality agreement that was executed simultaneously during employee onboarding, the California Court of Appeal has decided. In effect, one bad agreement invalidated them all. In the case of ...

In May, the Department of Labor issued an opinion letter, clarifying guidance around managing holiday hours with an employee’s Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) entitlement. The letter serves to reinforce established interpretations, namely: When a holiday falls during a ...

A federal appeals court has ruled that employee misclassification claims brought by “distributors” who delivered goods from a bakery company to their retailers were not subject to mandatory arbitration. Defendant Flowers Foods, Inc., which owns subsidiary bakeries in multiple states, ...

With a focus on preventing discrimination against job seekers and workers, the EEOC has issued a technical assistance document entitled, “Assessing Adverse Impact in Software, Algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence Used in Employment Selection Procedures Under Title VII of the Civil ...

In the wake of the federal announcement that the COVID-19 public health emergency is over, the EEOC has issued updates to its COVID-19 technical assistance. The guidance is entitled, “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation ...

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has made it easier for employers working remotely to file Form I-9. But soon that will no longer be the case. Form I-9 is used to verify the identity ...

An employee who would have been lawfully terminated had they not taken leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act cannot prove that their employer interfered with their FMLA rights by not reinstating them, a federal appeals court has ruled. ...

The use of previous salary history in determining pay for federal employment offers would be prohibited under proposed regulations released by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The proposal states that federal agencies would not be able to consider an applicant’s ...

A recent NRLB decision has returned to long-established “setting-specific” standards in cases where employees are disciplined or discharged for misconduct that takes place during activity that is otherwise protected by the National Labor Relations Act. These standards center around how ...

A bill introduced in Congress called the “Employee Rights Act” (ERA) has gained the support of employer groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The bill’s goal is to reach a balance between union rights, employee rights, and employer rights ...