Workforce Bulletin

Our colleague Janene Marasciullo, a Member of the Firm at Epstein Becker Green, has a November 2019 post on the Trade Secrets & Employee Mobility blog that will be of interest to many of our readers in the financial services industry: “Enforcing Non-Solicitation Agreements Against Financial Professionals: A Court Finds Financial Professionals Have a Duty to Notify Clients About a Change of Employment.”

Following is an excerpt:

A recent decision in Edward D. Jones & Co., LP v. John Kerr (S.D.In. 19-cv-03810 Nov. 14, 2019), illustrates the unique challenges that ...

Predictable lifetime income is often of paramount concern to retirees.  Yet, as employer-sponsored retirement plans have moved away from the traditional pension plan model, participants in defined contribution plans may be faced with managing their own account balances and plan distributions, which may not lead to a steady stream of lifetime income in retirement.  The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act”), signed into law on December 20, 2019, may aid in securing retirements.   Employers who sponsor defined contribution ...

As we have previously blogged, use of third-party digital hiring platforms to select job applicants using video interviews can present an array of potential legal issues. A recent Complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) by a consumer advocacy organization, Electronic Privacy Information Center (“EPIC”), illustrates some of those potential pitfalls. EPIC asks the FTC to investigate the recruiting technology company HireVue for alleged discriminatory screening of job applicants through its face-scanning software. HireVue asks job applicants to ...

With the start of the New Year, employers in the hospitality sector should prepare for new state- and local- minimum wage increases for their non-exempt employees.  To help multi-jurisdictional employers easily navigate these changes, we have prepared the chart below, which summarizes the new minimum wage rates that have taken effect on January 1, 2020, unless otherwise indicated.  Check back here in June for a summary of the new minimum wage rates that will take effect July 1, 2020.

On December 1, 2019, New Jersey’s Child Victim’s Act went into effect.  This new law opens a two-year “revival” period for individuals to assert civil claims of child abuse and to file claims against institutions and individuals, even if those claims had already expired and/or were dismissed because they were filed late.  Additionally, the new law also expands the statute of limitations for victims to bring claims of child sexual abuse to age 55 or until seven years from the time that an alleged victim became aware of his/her injury, whichever comes later.  Unlike other ...

Our colleague Adam S. Forman at Epstein Becker Green has recently published a post on the Management Memo blog that will be of interest to our readers in the retail industry: “NLRB Reverses Purple Communications – Holds Employer May Restrict Employees’ Use of Email and Other Information Technology Systems.”

Following is an excerpt:

On December 17, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) ruled that an employer’s rule prohibiting use of its email system for nonbusiness purposes did not violate employees’ rights under the National Labor ...

Our colleague Steven M. Swirsky at Epstein Becker Green has recently published a post on the Management Memo blog that will be of interest to our readers in the hospitality industry: “NLRB Reverses Position on Confidentiality Concerning Workplace Investigations – Holds That Confidentiality Requirements Are Presumptively Lawful.”

Following is an excerpt:

The National Labor Relations Board, in its December 17^th decision in Apogee Retail LLC d/b/a Unique Thrift Store, has reversed its prior rule and held that employer requirements that employees treat ...

Our colleague Steven M. Swirsky at Epstein Becker Green has recently published a post on the Management Memo blog that will be of interest to our readers in the retail industry: “NLRB Issues Proposed Rule to Scale Back 2014 Expedited Election Rules.”

Following is an excerpt:

The National Labor Relations Board (“Board” or “NLRB”) has announced that it is publishing proposed changes to its Rules and Regulations that will begin to reverse the Board’s 2014 changes, which took effect in 2015, to its representation election rules and procedures commonly ...

Our colleagues Adam C. Abrahms, Brock Olson & Steven M. Swirsky at Epstein Becker Green have recently published a post on the Management Memo blog that will be of interest to our readers in the hospitality industry: “NLRB’s General Counsel Signals Major Shift in Neutrality Agreement Between Employers and Unions Seeking to Organize Their Employees.”

Following is an excerpt:

The original charges alleged that the Employer unlawfully assisted the Union in numerous ways during the Union’s 2018 organizing campaign.  The charges alleged that one such way the ...

Fiduciaries of employee benefit plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”) that appoint investment managers (“Appointing Fiduciaries”) will be interested in the opinion of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in Scalia v. WPN Corporation, et al (“WPN”) regarding their duty to monitor investment fiduciaries.  Given the potential risk related to a breach this fiduciary duty, the WPN opinion is likely to be an important one for Appointing Fiduciaries.

In WPN, the Department of Labor alleged ...