Labor & Employment - 2014 Quarterly Newsletter
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A Hazy Area of the Law: The Impact of Medicinal and Recreational Marijuana Laws on Employers
Your employee recently failed a drug test, and in accordance with company policy, you terminated the employee. After notifying the employee of the company’s decision, he replied that he only smoked medicinal marijuana in the confines of his home, never violated state law, and was never under the influence of marijuana while on the job. The employee later threatens you with litigation. Should you be concerned? How does your state’s law affect your potential liability? [Read more →]
Which 'Federal Contractors' Are Subject to the New Minimum Wage Executive Order?
On February 12, 2014, President Obama signed an Executive Order (EO) that will raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour for certain workers employed by federal contractors. The EO will apply to covered federal contracts and subcontracts that are solicited on or after January 1, 2015. While the exact scope of the EO will not be known until the Department of Labor (DOL) releases the EO’s implementing regulations on October 1, 2014, the fact sheet released by the White House claims that the EO will serve to benefit hundreds of thousands of federal contractors’ workers.
Employers Should Carefully Monitor OSHA’s Proposed Injury and Illness Prevention Program in the Year Ahead
Developing a rule that mandates that employers create an injury and illness prevention program has been a high priority of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) since early on in the Obama administration. This rule, referred to as I2P2 for short, has been delayed numerous times in the last couple of years for various (often political) reasons. OSHA, however, remains steadfast and is doing what it can to push this rule onward. To that end, OSHA has published a considerable amount of marketing materials on its website aimed at garnering public support and distilling fears about I2P2’s requirements. Among these materials is a quote on I2P2 from Dr. David Michaels, the Assistant Secretary of Labor, stating: “Injury and illness prevention programs are good for workers, good for business and good for America.” But for employers seeking to avoid OSHA headaches, it is not so cut and dry.
Even though many employers have long thought that they cannot deploy arbitration agreements in the employment context to avoid class and collective action claims from their employees (because the Courts had held that it was unfair to employees), now, more than ever, courts are willing to enforce arbitration agreements that contain class action or collective action waivers. [Read more →]
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