New England Biz Law Update

The Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave has announced updated contribution rates and weekly benefit amounts under the state’s Paid Family and Medical Leave law. The new rates go into effect on Jan. 1, 2022. Under the changes, the ...

In September, National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued two memoranda seeking to implement more severe penalties for unfair labor practice violations. These memos appear to move forward on President Biden’s indication that he would be the “strongest ...

Employers who implemented widespread work-from-home arrangements during the pandemic may soon find it harder to deny remote work requests made under disability claims. In September, the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against an employer for ...

A U.S. House of Representatives committee has approved a five-fold increase in penalties for violations of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards. If this change is finalized by Congress, the maximum penalties for “willful,” “repeated,” and “failure-to-abate” violations would ...

A recent federal appeals court ruling highlights the importance of paying attention to racial slurs in the workplace, including when they are made in a foreign language. That is especially true, the court said, when the slurs are part of ...

For companies that sell products to consumers, reporting of safety hazards is always important. This year, enforcement activity by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for reporting violations is up. In January, the Department of Justice announced that Walter Kidde ...

The Biden administration’s first published regulatory agenda includes plans for significant changes to the H-1B visa program for high-skilled workers. According to the agenda, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) plans to amend the H-1B program by: Redefining the employer/employee ...

Earlier this year, the federal Department of Labor enacted a 100-percent premium subsidy for eligible individuals enrolled in COBRA as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). This subsidy is available for assistance eligible individuals (AEI) between April 1 ...

The Biden administration has taken action on the definition of “independent contractor” under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Trump’s Department of Labor had announced an employer-friendly five-part test that largely defined an independent contractor’s status based on the level ...

President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order calling for restrictions on businesses’ use of noncompete agreements. Businesses sometimes use noncompetes to keep employees from accepting a job with a competing company for a certain amount of time after leaving ...