By: John E. Murray Under the American’s with Disabilities Act, and most state discrimination laws, employers must make reasonable accommodations for qualified disabled workers. When no accommodation would allow the employee to remain in his or her current position, employers must consider reassignment to a vacant position for which the employee is qualified. In a […]
By: Oyvind Wistrom The filing of several recent lawsuits has focused increased attention on the advisability and legality of using unpaid interns under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). With the tight labor market, students and recent graduates have become increasingly eager to accept unpaid positions or internships just to get their foot in the […]
By: Alan M. Levy In what was probably the most eagerly-awaited Supreme Court decision since Bush v. Gore, a majority of Chief Justice John Roberts and the Court’s four liberals have held that the “individual mandate” in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (often called “Obamacare”) is constitutional under Congress’s taxing authority. National Federation […]
By: Daniel Finerty and John Murray Conventional wisdom dictates that an election year typically leads to a rulemaking slowdown among the federal agencies that regulate the workplace. However, in the last few months, the National Labor Relations Board has challenged that conventional wisdom by seeking to implement two new mandates on employers as well and […]
By: Kristofor L. Hanson Yesterday, with implementation less than two weeks away, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia enjoined the National Labor Relations Board from implementing or enforcing its proposed employee rights posting rule until the court has decided whether the rule is lawful. Implementation had been set for April […]
By: Kristofor L. Hanson The Wisconsin Legislature has passed a bill that will eliminate compensatory and punitive damages under the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act (“WFEA”). Governor Scott Walker is expected to sign the bill in the near future. Once signed, the law will eliminate the availability of compensatory and punitive damages for all future cases […]
By: Kristofor L. Hanson The National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) has once again postponed the effective date of its employee rights notice-posting rule at the request of the federal court in Washington, D.C., hearing a legal challenge regarding the rule. We alerted you to this rule and its initial postponement in previous E-Alerts of October […]
By: Kristofor L. Hanson In an effort to push through significant changes to representation election procedures before losing a quorum, on Tuesday, December 20, the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) issued a final rule on what has become known in some circles as the “quickie” election rule. The final rule, set to take effect on […]
By: Laurie A. Petersen and Kristofor L. Hanson On December 9, 2011, the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”), published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which if implemented, would impose significant changes on companies doing business with the federal government with respect to their hiring of persons with disabilities. The rule […]
By: Alan M. Levy On November 4, 2011, Wisconsin ceased requiring that employers withhold state income tax on the imputed cost of their employees’ health insurance premiums for children who were dependents as defined by federal, but not by state law. Last year’s federal health care legislation provided that the children of employees participating in […]