New England Biz Law Update

Wal-Mart equal pay claims approach 2,000 Nearly 2,000 women have filed individual employment discrimination claims against Wal-Mart in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last June rejecting their equal pay and failure-to-promote class action, plaintiffs’ lawyers say. Former and ...

Tagged with: July 31 2012 issue

Bill bars insurance for civil penalties Legislation that would prohibit officers, directors and employees from buying insurance shielding them from personally paying compensation clawbacks or civil penalties for harmful actions they commit has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. ...

Tagged with: June 30 2012 issue

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has issued updated guidance on employers’ use of criminal background checks in making employment decisions. According to EEOC officials, the new guidance, the first since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which ...

Tagged with: May 31 2012 issue

New rules simplifying and speeding up the process for union organizing elections went into effect on April 30. The rules establish pre-election hearings to determine whether there is a “question of representation” to be resolved by an election, rather than ...

Tagged with: May 31 2012 issue

A federal appellate court has temporarily blocked the National Labor Relations Board from implementing its controversial employer notice posting rule, which was set to go into effect April 30. The D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a temporary injunction ...

Tagged with: May 31 2012 issue

The new federal consumer protection bureau has proposed a rule that would place large-scale debt collectors and consumer reporting agencies under its “nonbank” supervision program. “Our proposed rule would mean that those debt collectors and credit reporting agencies that qualify ...

Tagged with: March 31 2012 issue

A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate is aimed at accelerating the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process for new drugs and treatments needed by patients with serious or life-threatening diseases. The Transforming the Regulatory Environment to Accelerate Access to ...

Tagged with: March 31 2012 issue

The Department of Labor has issued a new, final rule governing the H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker program that the agency said will give U.S. workers greater protections and job access.

Tagged with: March 31 2012 issue

Lawsuits challenging the validity of President Barack Obama’s recess appointments to two major federal agencies have cast a cloud of uncertainty over opinions and regulations being handed down and could result in years of additional litigation that will harm American ...

Tagged with: Feb. 29 2012 issue

Fueled in part by an increase in age and disability discrimination claims, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received a record-high 99,947 charges of employment discrimination in fiscal 2011, the agency has announced. The EEOC obtained more than $455 million in ...

Tagged with: Feb. 29 2012 issue