Workforce Bulletin

Our colleagues Brandon C. Ge, Steven M. Swirsky, Daniel J. Green, Lori A. Medley, and Valerie N. Butera (with Theresa E. Thompson, a Summer Associate) contributed to Epstein Becker Green’s recent issue of Take 5 newsletter. In this edition, we address important employment, labor, and workforce management issues in the technology, media, and telecommunications industry:

1. BYOD Programs: Privacy and Security Issues and Minimizing the Risk
2. High Tech and New Media: Organized Labor’s New Frontier
3. A Growing Role for the FTC in Regulating Workforce Management
4. Avoiding Age ...

Recently, Epstein Becker & Green attorneys Michelle Capezza, Christopher Farella, Laurajane Kastner and Patrick Lucignani attended the New Jersey Technology Council (NJTC) 2015 Annual Meeting held on July 15, 2015 at the Forsgate Country Club in Monroe, NJ.   A dynamic panel discussed many innovative ways technology is being used in today’s sports and how it may be used in the future. Tools have emerged to assist in coaching, refereeing and reviewing plays, as well as the development of sensors and technology to protect player safety, virtual player training techniques and video ...

Can an employee who blows the whistle on alleged securities law violations within the company (and is therefore protected by the anti-retaliation provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act), but does not blow the whistle externally to the SEC, also invoke the more advantageous anti-retaliation protections of the Dodd-Frank Act in a private lawsuit?  Or is Dodd-Frank limited to protecting external whistelblowers? There is a growing split of authority on this question among various federal appellate and district courts.  On June 17, 2015, the Second Circuit heard oral arguments on this ...

Employers in the technology industry should take note of last week’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in EEOC v. New Breed Logistics (PDF).  The court declined to reconsider a panel holding that, in the context of a retaliation claim, “a demand that a supervisor cease his/her harassing conduct constitutes protected activity under Title VII.”

Three former employees of New Breed Logistics, a supply-chain logistics company, asserted that they had engaged in protected activity by telling their supervisor to stop making advances and sexual comments.  The ...

Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens’ office and retail leasing markets are booming as rents continue to rise through the second quarter of 2015. The surge in leasing has gone hand in hand with strong employment growth with businesses of all sizes desiring to set up shop in New York City. Retail, industrial, and office tenants have flocked to capitalize on this surge in growth and opportunities. In addition, entrepreneurship, technology and creative firms are seeking more office and retail space for their growing businesses, especially in Brooklyn and Downtown Manhattan.

The ...

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed two ordinances, known colloquially as the Retail Workers Bill of Rights, to regulate: (1) employee hours, scheduling, and retention; and (2) treatment of part-time employees at certain standardized retail establishments in San Francisco.  The ordinances, codified as: Hours and Retention Protections for Formula Retail Employees Ordinance, San Francisco Police Code Article 33F, and Fair Scheduling and Treatment of Formula Retail Employees, San Francisco Police Code Article 33G, went into effect earlier this year.  Enforcement ...

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Young v. UPS, [1]  the EEOC has modified those aspects of its Enforcement Guidance on Pregnancy Discrimination and Related Issues (“Guidance”) that deal with disparate treatment and light duty.

Under the prior guidance, issued in 2014, the EEOC asserted that a pregnant worker could prove a violation of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (“PDA”) simply by showing that she was “treated differently than a non-pregnant worker similar in his/her ability or inability to work.”  The 2014 guidance also took the position that an ...

My colleagues Nathaniel M. Glasser and Kristie-Ann M. Yamane (a Summer Associate) at Epstein Becker Green have published a Financial Services Employment Law blog post concerning recent modifications to pregnancy discrimination that will be of interest to many of our readers: “EEOC Updates Pregnancy Discrimination Guidance.”

Following is an excerpt:

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Young v. UPS, [1]  the EEOC has modified those aspects of its Enforcement Guidance on Pregnancy Discrimination and Related Issues (“Guidance”) that deal with ...

My colleagues Nathaniel M. Glasser and Kristie-Ann M. Yamane (a Summer Associate) at Epstein Becker Green have published a Financial Services Employment Law blog post concerning recent modifications to pregnancy discrimination that will be of interest to many of our readers: “EEOC Updates Pregnancy Discrimination Guidance.”

Following is an excerpt:

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Young v. UPS, [1]  the EEOC has modified those aspects of its Enforcement Guidance on Pregnancy Discrimination and Related Issues (“Guidance”) that deal with ...

My colleague Steven M. Swirsky at Epstein Becker Green has a Management Memo blog post concerning union organizing campaigns that will be of interest to many of our readers: “Salon Writers and Editorial Staff Demand Representation by The News Guild – Union Organizing in Electronic Media Continues to Grow.”

Following is an excerpt:

In the footsteps of last month’s union election at Gawker, an electronic news site, it has now been reported that all 26 of the writers and editors of San Francisco-based at Salon, another on line news organization, have served the publication ...