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DOL Will No Longer Seek Liquidated Damages As A Default Policy In Wage And Hour Cases

Vincent Jackson
Vincent Jackson
06/25/2020
Agency Activity, Wage & Hour
The Department of  Labor has pulled back from its policy of seeking liquidated damages – or “double” damages – against employers in wage and hour investigations.  On June 24, 2020, the DOL issued a field assistance bulletin which stated that it will no longer apply the default policy of seeking pre-litigation liquidated damages from employers who are found to owe back wages to workers.  Specifically, the Department will not assess...
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EEOC, DOL, and OSHA Activity For Employers To Note

Randi Klein Hyatt
Randi Klein Hyatt
06/09/2020
Agency Activity, COVID-19
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has delayed the submission of this year's EEO-1 forms until March 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Each year, employers must submit demographic workforce data by March 31 for the prior calendar year.  The EEOC determined to collect both 2019 and 2020 data in March 2021 given the challenging compensation data of these past few months. The Department of Labor (DOL) published updated COBRA...
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Maryland Employers Required to Report Sex Harassment Settlements By July 1st

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
06/06/2020
Agency Activity, Sexual Harassment
n May 2018, my colleague Randi Hyatt posted about the “Disclosing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Act of 2018” (“Act”).  The Act went into effect on October 1, 2018 and has a sunset provision for June 30, 2023.  The Act established the requirement for employers with at least 50 employees (at all locations, not exclusively working in Maryland) to submit a survey to the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights (“MCCR”) regarding...
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Federal Court Blocks Implementation Of New Election Rules

Clifford Geiger
Clifford Geiger
06/02/2020
Agency Activity, Union Activity
In December 2019 the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued a final rule to amend the procedures to be followed in union representation cases.  The NLRB said the purpose of the final rule was “to permit parties additional time to comply with various pre-election requirements instituted in 2015, to clarify and reinstate some procedures that better ensure the opportunity for litigation and resolution of unit scope and voter...
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DOL Issues New Final Rule on Retail or Service Establishment Overtime Exemption

Eric Paltell
Eric Paltell
05/19/2020
Agency Activity, Wage & Hour
On May 19, 2020, the United States Department of Labor issued a new final rule that overhauls its 60-year old regulatory guidance on the types of industries that fall within the "retail or service establishment" overtime exemption.  The change may result in more employers being able to take advantage of this exemption. Under Section 207(i) of the FLSA, an employer who mets the definition of a retail or service establishment  is excused...
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COVID-19 and the ADA

Vincent Jackson
Vincent Jackson
03/26/2020
Agency Activity, COVID-19, Disability & Leave
The EEOC issued on March 19, 2020 an FAQ entitled What You Should Know About the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and COVID-19 that contains important guidance for employers adjusting to the new reality presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act continue to apply, they do not prevent compliance with guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) or state and local public...
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EEOC Enforcement Data Shows Decrease In Overall Complaints For FY19

Bernadette Hunton
Bernadette Hunton
01/27/2020
Agency Activity, Employment Discrimination
On Friday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released its charge-filing statistics for fiscal year 2019, which began October 1, 2018 and ended September 30, 2019. Overall, the Commission received 72,675 charges of discrimination in FY19, down from 76,418 in 2018.  Not surprisingly, retaliation charges continued to make up a majority of claims at 39,110 or 53.8%.  Compared to other employment discrimination claims, retaliation...
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DOL Issues New Guidance On Joint Employment

Vincent Jackson
Vincent Jackson
01/21/2020
Agency Activity, Joint Employer, Wage & Hour
On January 16, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final rule that will significantly revise its longstanding interpretation of joint employer status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  This update marks the first substantive change to the federal regulation concerning joint employer status (29 CFR Part 791) in over 60 years, and provides a new framework for assessing joint employer status when an employee performs work for...
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DOL Rolls Out New and Proposed Rules Regarding FLSA Pay Requirements

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
11/11/2019
Agency Activity, Wage & Hour
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently took two actions implicating and potentially implicating, respectively, how employees are paid under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). A New Rule First, on September 27, the DOL issued a final rule on implementing the exemptions from minimum wage and overtime pay requirements for executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, and computer employees.  In general, the FLSA requires...
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Employers: Don’t Be Part of the Department of Labor’s Statistics

Frank Kollman
Frank Kollman
10/30/2019
Agency Activity, Wage & Hour
The Department of Labor is reporting that it collected $322 million in back wages for workers in fiscal year 2019, which is a record.  The amount collected in fiscal year 2018 was also a record at that time.  This should put to rest any concerns about DOL enforcement policies under a Republican administration. Most of the cases involved overtime compensation ($186 million), and about $40 million involved failure to pay minimum wage.  In any...
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