When it comes to pay practices, employers are accustomed to being told by federal, state, and local legislators what to do. DON’T engage in discriminatory pay practices. DO pay overtime when required. DO pay minimum wage. DON’T pay under the table. DO pay employees equally for equal work. DON’T ask applicants or employees their salary history when offering or negotiating pay. DON’T request a potential employee’s criminal history on a job application. The list goes on.
Continue Reading Equal Pay, Pay Transparency, and Job Postings: What Employers Need to Know Now
Potential Legal Implications of Remote Work Policies
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many employers required their employees to work remotely to comply with state mandates and ensure their employees’ and customers’ health and safety. That resulted in a shift in attitudes about work-from-home policies.
What began as a necessity has shifted to a preference. A majority of employees believe that significant portions of their job functions can be performed remotely. Furthermore, most employees wish to continue to work from home at least part of the time. Market factors and employers’ desires to retain their talented, trained employees have resulted in employers implementing remote work policies.
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Workplace COVID Testing Must Be “Business Necessity” United States Equal Opportunity Commission Says
The United States Equal Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) enforces workplace anti-discrimination laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and the Rehabilitation Act.
On July 12, 2022, the EEOC announced that employers should take more factors into consideration when choosing whether to screen employees for Covid-19. Now, “employers will need to access whether current pandemic circumstances and individual workplace circumstances justify viral screening testing” for employees in an update to its technical assistance guidance (https://www.eeoc.gov/wysk/what-you-should-know-about-covid-19-and-ada-rehabilitation-act-and-other-eeo-laws#A.6). The EEOC found that a “Covid-19 test is a medical examination within the meaning of the [Americans with Disabilities Act].” As a result, if an employer requires mandatory medical tests of employees, they must “be job-related and consistent with business necessity.”
Non-Disparagement Clauses in Employment Contracts Still Valid Under New Jersey Law
Non-disparagement is not the same thing as non-disclosure. It seems simple and straightforward, except when it isn’t. That was the case of Savage v. Township of Neptune.
It was only a matter of time before New Jersey courts began passing judgment on the March 18, 2019 amendment to the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“NJLAD”) preventing the enforcement of non-disclosure agreements in employment contracts and settlement agreements. In 2019, pundits and practitioners questioned the breadth and scope of that supplement to the NJLAD. Three years later, in Savage v. Neptune, the New Jersey Appellate Division has now made clear that non-disparagement provisions are not covered by or included within the prohibition against non-disclosure provisions in employment contracts and settlement agreements.
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New Jersey Employers Are Now Required to Provide Written Notice Before Using Tracking Devices in Employee-Operated Vehicles
Earlier this year, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law Assembly Bill No. 3950, which requires employers in the State to provide written notice to an employee before using a tracking device on a vehicle used by the employee. The new law, which went into effect on April 18, 2022, recognizes that employers may have a legitimate business interest in being able to track their workforce’s whereabouts—particularly when traveling or working offsite—while also reconciling that with the protection of workers’ privacy rights. At the very least, the days of covertly tracking employee vehicles appear to be a thing of the past.
Remote & Alternative Work Arrangements – Strategies for Success and Reducing Risk
Let’s face it: remote, hybrid, and alternative work arrangements are here to stay. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Though many employers already had accepted and adopted remote, hybrid, and alternative work arrangements before the COVID-19 pandemic (and the consequential quarantining that came with it), COVID-19 accelerated the need for workforce mobility and fundamentally changed who we hire and how, when, and where we work.
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The ETS, the Supreme Court Ruling, and the Vax-or-Test Rollercoaster: What Should Your Business Do Now?
Updated as of 1/27/22 due to OSHA’s withdrawal of the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS)
The vax-or-test legal rollercoaster ride continues, leaving human resource managers’ heads spinning, lawyers prognosticating, and employers simply wondering what comes next.
On January 13, 2022, the United States Supreme Court, in a 6-3 majority decision, dealt a substantial blow to the future implementation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for large employers, putting the ETS on hold indefinitely pending further review by the United States Court of Appeal for the 6th Circuit (which had reinstated the vaccinate-or-test mandate). Among other things, the ETS mandated that all businesses with 100+ employees require their employees to either vaccinate (and provide proof thereof) or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing to attend work.
Employers, the Coronavirus, and the Reinstatement of the OSHA ETS: What Now?
On November 5, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued its Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), requiring private employers having at least 100 employees companywide (at any given time) to adopt written policies and procedures either mandating vaccination against COVID-19 or requiring employees to choose between vaccination or undergo weekly testing while wearing a face-covering at work.
Continue Reading Employers, the Coronavirus, and the Reinstatement of the OSHA ETS: What Now?
Vaccine Rules for Employers with over 100 Employees: Here Are the Details
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) covers employers with 100 or more employees. OSHA announced a rule that companies who have 100 or more employees must ensure that their workforce is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 on or before January 4, 2022, or they must test negative for COVID-19 at least once a week.
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70 is the New 40 – New Jersey Law Against Discrimination Expands Protections to Employees Over the Age of 70
On Tuesday, October 5, 2021, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation that addressed a blind spot in the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination that actually enabled private employers to discriminate against employees on the basis of their age. The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“NJLAD”), codified at N.J.S.A. 10:5-1, et seq., which in relevant part provides that “all persons shall have the opportunity to obtain employment without discrimination,” protects private employees in New Jersey against disparate treatment, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and other unequal employment practices on the basis of certain protected characteristics, including their age.
Continue Reading 70 is the New 40 – New Jersey Law Against Discrimination Expands Protections to Employees Over the Age of 70