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I’m traveling for work this week but today’s Supreme Court opinion is one I have been waiting for all term. In Epic Systems v. Lewis, the Court held that arbitration agreements between employees and employers that require mandatory arbitration of disputes can also require that all disputes be arbitrated individually and not as a…

One of the biggest criticisms I have of the FLSA is that it provides no safe harbor or protection for an employer, who having realized it made a wage and hour mistake, to voluntarily self-report and correct its mistake. Instead, it can encourage employers who learn of a potential FLSA violation that has not otherwise been discovered to continue its current practice hoping that the violation will not be discovered.  This week the U.S. Department of Labor announced its Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program that takes a step in providing employers with an incentive to voluntarily identify and self-correct wage and hour violations.  The stated purpose of the program is to
Continue Reading Department of Labor Rolls Out Pilot Program for Employers to Correct Inadvertent Wage and Hour Violations

In Texas, absent a valid noncompete, an at-will employee is generally free to compete with the former employer so long as the employee does not take or use the company’s confidential information or trade secrets. Notwithstanding this general rule, employees also have common law fiduciary duties that limit what activities they can engage in prior to resigning employment.  The level of fiduciary duty owed to the company will depend on the duties and responsibilities of the employee and the position within the company.  Employees may generally make preparations to compete while still employed by a company but cannot actively compete while still employed.  What constitutes preparing to compete versus actively competing can often be a blurry line.  A recent case from the El Paso Court of Appeals helps to bring the line into focus.
Continue Reading El Paso Court of Appeals Clarifies Fiduciary Duty At-Will Employees Owe to Employers

This month the City of Austin passed the State’s first municipal paid sick leave ordinance requiring private employers to provide earned sick time to employees. Beginning on October 1, 2018 (and October 1, 2020 for employers with five or fewer employees), employers with employees working in the City of Austin must provide employees with earned sick time.
Continue Reading Austin Passes Law Requiring Private Employers to Provide Paid Sick Leave

The U.S. Department of Labor recently abandoned its six-factor internship test in favor of the seven-factor primary beneficiary test utilized by most Courts. The primary benefit test adopts a temporal limitation for the internship that was not in the old six-factor test and incorporates two elements linking eligibility to the intern’s education programs and academic…

The #Metoo movement and high profile sexual harassment allegations involving prominent Americans has influenced provisions of the new tax reform law.  The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed by President Trump on December 20, 2017, limits the deductibility settlements paid on sexual harassment claims where the settlement agreement contains nondisclosure provisions.  Section 13307 of the…

Facebook ads allow advertisers to target their advertising towards a variety of metrics. For example, you can target an ad to users in a city, state or zip code. You can also target particular professions and users in various age bands. In a recently filed age discrimination lawsuit, several large employers are accused of committing…

Many employers have adopted various technologies for tracking employee worktime.  One type commonly used is the biometric timekeeping system (e.g. fingerprint or retina scanners) that employees use to clock-in and clock-out of work.  A recent putative class action filed in Illinois should act as a reminder that such biometric systems may be subject to state…

One of the consequences of the Americans with Disabilities Amendment Act’s expanded definition of disability is that employers are facing a much larger number of accommodation requests and therefore a greater number of potential accommodations. Anecdotally, I have seen a sharp uptick in the number of employees asking employers to bring animals to the workplace…

At the end of October, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) communicated a significant shift in their enforcement guidance regarding competition among employers to limit or fix terms of employment for potential hires.  In a new publication, Antitrust Guidance for Human Resource Professionals, the DOJ announced its …