Workforce Bulletin

By:  William J. Milani and Anna Kolontyrsky

The New York Court of Appeals has rejected a wrongful discharge cause of action brought by a hedge fund compliance officer who claimed that he was terminated for questioning a series of personal stock trades by the company’s president.  Sullivan v. Harnisch, No. 82 (N.Y. May 8, 2012) (PDF)

Sullivan, who was the Chief Compliance Officer, Executive Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the hedge fund, was terminated after confronting the hedge fund's president about stock trades that Sullivan believed ...

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) announced in a May 17, 2012 notice published in the Federal Register that it will establish a Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee (“Committee”) in an effort “to improve the fairness, efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of OSHA’s whistleblower protection activities.” Creation of the Committee follows OSHA’s March 2012 reorganization providing for direct reporting to the Department of Labor’s Office of the Assistant Secretary, and further evidences the agency’s ...

By:  Kara Maciel

On March 15, 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) had temporarily postponed compliance with the 2010 ADA Standards as it relates to providing accessible entries and exits to pools and spas.  That day was set to expire later this month, on May 21, 2012, but the DOJ has announced that it will extend that compliance date to January 31, 2013 – a nine month extension from the original compliance date of March 15, 2012.

This extension to January 31, 2013, however, does not change the substance of the DOJ’s requirement that lifts be “fixed.”  The DOJ failed to ...

By:  John F. Fullerton III

On May 16, I co-hosted a small roundtable discussion here at the firm entitled “Employee Misclassification Issues in the Financial Services Industry:  Preventive Maintenance and Proactive Strategies.”  The topics included proper application of the administrative exemption from federal and state overtime laws; the nettlesome employee v. independent contractor question; and contingent workforce issues.  In attendance was a healthy mix of in-house employment counsel, human resources professionals, management consultants and outside counsel.  ...

by James S. Frank, Steven M. Swirsky, Adam C. Abrahms, Donald S. Krueger, and D. Martin Stanberry 

In a sharp setback for the National Labor Relations Board (the "Board"), a federal district court in Washington, D.C. (the "Court"), struck down the Board's election rules, which took effect on April 30, 2012, on technical grounds, holding that the Board did not have a properly constituted quorum of three members when it voted to change its election rules and procedures. See Chamber of Commerce v. NLRB, No. 11-2262 (JEB), Slip Op., 2012 WL 1664028 (D.D.C. May 14, 2012). This decision comes ...

By:  Dena L. Narbaitz

 This is the fourth in our series of posts on practice and procedure in employment-related arbitrations before FINRA.  Check back often for future posts, subscribe by e-mail (see the sidebar), or follow @FSemployer on Twitter so you don’t miss any updates!

The FINRA Code of Arbitration Procedure provides for a simplified arbitration process in both employment and customer disputes if the dollar amount in controversy is below a certain threshold. The SEC recently approved FINRA’s proposal to raise the dollar limit eligible for simplified arbitration ...

By: Kara M. Maciel and Elizabeth Bradley

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is rapidly becoming the champion of employers in the fight against the National Labor Relations Board’s (the “Board”) attempt to implement radical new rules governing the workplace.

Last month, on April 17, 2012, the D.C. Circuit enjoined the implementation of the Board’s rule requiring that employers post a notice informing employees of their right to join or form a union. Yesterday, the D.C. Circuit struck another blow to the Board by holding that its proposed union election rules ...

Last week, EHS Today Magazine ran our article in which we delve into more detail about OSHA's amended Hazard Communication Rule (“HazCom”), and the integration of the United Nations’ Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (“GHS”).  Check out the full article here, in which we detailed 10 important things employers need to know about the final HazCom Rule.  Here's the short list:

1. New Hazard Classification Criteria
2. New Method for Evaluating Mixtures
3. Amended Label Requirements
4. Proscrictive Format for Safety Data Sheet
5. Inclusion of ...

By Amanda R. Strainis-Walker and Eric J. Conn

With the dog days of summer around the corner, OSHA just put out a press release reminding employers with outside workplaces about OSHA’s focus on the hazards of working in high heat.  The press release reinvigorates OSHA’s heat-related illness campaign that began leading into last summer, when OSHA produced a great deal of public information about heat-related illness, including a dedicated heat illness information page on OSHA’s website, a YouTube video, public press statements, speeches by senior Department of Labor and OSHA ...

On May 9, 2012, the Second Circuit held that Title VII’s “participation clause,” prohibiting an employer from retaliating against any employee who participates in an investigation “under” Title VII, requires participation in a formal investigation involving the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) – participating in purely internal investigations, conducted pursuant to the employer’s own policies and procedures, is not sufficient to trigger the statutory protections. Townsend v. Benjamin Enterprises, Inc., No. 09-0197. 

The Second ...