Workforce Bulletin

Congratulations to our fellow EBG bloggers:  LexisNexis has selected Epstein Becker Green's Wage & Hour Defense Blog as a nominee for its Top 25 Labor and Employment Law Blogs. LexisNexis annually honors a select group of blogs that set the online standard for a given industry. This year, LexisNexis expanded Top Blogs to the Labor and Employment Law Community.

To narrow down to its final list of 25 honorees, LexisNexis is seeking feedback and input from the online community. If you find Epstein Becker Green's Wage & Hour Defense Blog useful and informative, we would appreciate your ...

On August 12, 2011, the Departments of Treasury and Health and Human Services released Proposed Regulations to provide guidance to individuals who enroll in qualified health plans through State-based Exchanges, as envisioned under the Affordable Care Act, and to provide guidance to Exchanges that make qualified health plans available to individuals and employers.  The Exchanges will be one-stop marketplaces where consumers can buy private health insurance plans.  The premium tax credit is designed to help individuals and families with incomes between 100% and 400% of the ...

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing on August 4, 2011 of our esteemed colleague, Team member and friend, Lola Miranda Hale. A 1968 graduate of Fordham University School of Law, Lola was an excellent corporate and securities lawyer, an Illinois Super Lawyer and recently named to Who’s Who Legal Illinois. An active leader in many organizations, an avid published writer, and national public speaker, Lola made complicated issues easy to understand and was an asset to all with whom she worked.  Lola was an original, and among the founding members of our Technology ...

As you may know, the authors of this blog are attorneys at Epstein Becker Green, a national law firm with approximately 300 lawyers practicing in ten offices throughout the U.S.

On July 19, 2011, Epstein Becker Green’s Jay P. Krupin testified before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) concerning the Board’s dramatic rulemaking proposals to modify the representation election process. The firm was one of only a handful of management-side firms invited to provide testimony on behalf of clients at this first-ever NLRB hearing.

Vigorously arguing against the proposed ...

As you may know, the authors of this blog are attorneys at Epstein Becker Green, a national law firm with approximately 300 lawyers practicing in ten offices throughout the U.S.

On July 19, 2011, Epstein Becker Green’s Jay P. Krupin testified before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) concerning the Board’s dramatic rulemaking proposals to modify the representation election process. The firm was one of only a handful of management-side firms invited to provide testimony on behalf of clients at this first-ever NLRB hearing.

Vigorously arguing against the proposed ...

On July 13, 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration issued a final regulation under ERISA to extend and align the applicability dates for retirement plan fee disclosure rules (i.e., the service provider fee and conflicts of interest disclosures to plan fiduciaries as well as the participant-level fee disclosures).  The service provider disclosures may now be provided no later than April 1, 2012 (an extension from January 1, 2012 as indicated in prior guidance).  There may also be additional guidance before the end of this year as to what those ...

By Michael Kun

               Understandably, employers have celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes and AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion.  At the very least, those cases would seem to suggest that the wage-hour class actions and collective actions that have besieged employers might be curtailed significantly, along with the costly settlements triggered by the in terrorem effect of such lawsuits.

               California employers can stop celebrating, or at least tone down those celebrations.

               Unlike other states, California law provides for a mechanism by which employees ...

By Michael Kun and Betsy Johnson

                 In a much-anticipated decision, the California Supreme Court has expanded the scope of California’s complex wage-hour laws to non-resident employees who perform work in California.  While the decision leaves more than a few questions unanswered, it will require a great many employers to review their overtime and other payroll practices.  Perhaps just as importantly, it will likely open the door to lawsuits, including class actions, regarding  prior overtime and payroll practices. This issue is of particular importance to hospitality ...

By: John F. Fullerton III and Douglas Weiner

The current prevalence of lawsuits for unpaid overtime compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) by employees who claim they were misclassified by their current or former employer as “exempt” from overtime has been well-documented.  These lawsuits continue to present challenges to employers, not just in terms of the burdens and costs of defending the cases, but in the uncertainty of the potential financial exposure. As our colleagues have previously reported (here and here), there are two methods in which the ...

Allen B. Roberts and Stuart Gerson  are co-authors of the recent Law360 article Examining The Purpose Of Sarbanes-Oxley. This summary of recent Administrative Review Board actions explains the shift in the standards whistleblowers must meet, and how employers should prepare for this new era of litigation.