The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has yet again issued new standards by which it will judge employers’ workplace rules (such as codes of conduct). The NLRB’s new framework is relevant to companies because it limits their ability to discipline or terminate employees for, what the employer would ordinarily consider, infractions of reasonable workplace rules. Here, we discuss what employers need to know.
Many employers, in the interest of efficiency, are beginning to incorporate artificial intelligence (“AI”) into their workplaces, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has established that it will ensure that the incorporation of AI into the workplace does not violate federal employment laws.
On August 11, the EEOC published proposed regulations implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which became effective on June 27, 2023. Although not final, the EEOC is expected to adopt these regulations in, largely, the proposed form. Thus, in this article, we summarize the key provisions of the proposed regulations:
The New York State Pay Transparency Law (the “Law”) goes into effect on September 17, 2023. The Law requires New York State employers to disclose the “minimum and maximum annual salary or hourly range of compensation” that the employer in “good faith believes to be accurate” for a job, promotion, or transfer opportunity “that will be performed, at least in part, in the state of New York.”
In a press release heard around the world, the Attorney General announced the filing of a lawsuit against the owners, operators, and landlords of the healthcare giant, Centers Health Care for alleged “repeated and persistent fraud and illegally misusing more than $83 million in taxpayer money that resulted in significant resident neglect, harm, and humiliation.”
On June 1, 2023, in two unanimous decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that liability in False Claims Act (“FCA”) lawsuits is determined by whether the defendant subjectively believed its claims were false at the time that those claims were submitted for payment, as distinguished from focusing on what an objectively reasonable person might believe at a later time.
On June 29, 2023, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Groff v. Dejoy, in which the Court announced a heightened standard for employers attempting to demonstrate that an employee’s request for religious accommodation under Title VII would impose an undue hardship on its business.
New York employers have been receiving letters from the Unemployment Insurance Board which demand additional payments for the “IAS Surcharge.” As a reminder, the surcharge is intended to replenish the State’s UI fund, and make up for the fact that the New York State Department of Labor entirely depleted the UI fund by paying out so many benefits during the pandemic.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has updated the mandatory jobsite poster “Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal.”
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is continuing to caution employers about claiming the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC), noting that there have been aggressive and unlawful tactics by various ERC filing services.