New England Biz Law Update

Employees who contract COVID-19 may be protected from discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said in a new guidance. Evaluated on a case-by-case basis, coronavirus infection can meet the ADA’s three definitions ...

A defendant company that entered into a subcontract for regional direct sales services for its national clients could not be held liable under the Massachusetts wage laws as the “joint employer” of plaintiffs who worked as salespersons for that subcontractor, ...

A federal appeals court has extended its stay of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s new mandatory COVID vaccination standard for large employers, finding it likely that the emergency measure is unconstitutional and exceeds the agency’s statutory authority. The ...

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is launching an initiative to ensure that artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging tools used in hiring and other employment decisions comply with federal civil rights laws. “Artificial intelligence and algorithmic decision-making tools have ...

As an employer, you may be wondering whether you can be held accountable for your employees’ personal social media activity. Based on a recent Massachusetts court decision, under certain circumstances, you can. The employer in the case was an investment ...

Massachusetts has extended COVID-19 emergency paid leave requirements to April 1, 2022. The state’s Temporary Emergency COVID-19 Paid Sick Leave statute went into effect in May 2021. The extension leaves that law largely intact — with one addition. Now, employees ...

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 ...