New England Biz Law Update

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 ...

In the past, it was sufficient for employers to have a simple social media policy. An employer could essentially bar employees from using company devices to post nonwork-related content on social media and mandate that work-related posts be business appropriate. ...

Tesla supervisors at a Florida service center violated federal labor law by barring employees from talking about pay and other working conditions and bringing complaints to higher level managers, an NLRB Administrative Law Judge has ruled. In late 2021, employees ...

Three bills intended to help close the pay gap for women and minorities have been introduced in Congress. The measures were introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who was also the first woman ...

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is expected to propose a rule that would allow third-party worker advocates to take part in facility inspections. Workers at nonunion facilities would have the right to designate a representative to take part ...

The U.S. Department of Labor is expected to propose a new overtime rule in May. Once the new rule has been announced, stakeholders will have an opportunity to comment before it’s finalized. Analysts are widely predicting an increase to the ...

In February, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a decision in McLaren Macomb, establishing that severance agreements with overly broad confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions violated Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (the Act). The decision raised many ...