In early February 2020, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals decided that a Philadelphia ordinance passed years ago could go into effect and that Philadelphia employers will no longer be able to ask job applicants about their salary history in job interviews and related contexts.
Continue reading “Third Circuit Upholds Philadelphia Ban on Salary History Inquiries”
Daily headlines about the growing coronavirus threat have many employers concerned that they are not doing all they should to protect employees without undue disruption to operations. Here are some answers that may inform your own response plan.
Effective December 31, 2019, Pennsylvania amended section 6344(m) of the Child Protective Services Law (CPSL), which pertains to background checks for employees who have contact with children. Specifically, the amendment prohibits employers, administrators, supervisors or other persons responsible for employment decisions from employing applicants on a provisional basis absent a waiver from the department. Child day-care centers, group day-care homes or family child-care homes may apply for a one-time extension not to exceed 45 days only if the following conditions are met.
On January 21, 2020, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law three bills that increase the potential pitfalls for businesses that rely on independent contractors. One new law adds to the penalties for misclassifying employees as independent contractors. Another new law imposes liability on businesses ─ including potential liability on individual managers ─ that use staffing companies that misclassify workers. The third new law adopts new posting requirements and anti-retaliation provisions.
Continue reading “Retaining Independent Contractors in New Jersey Just Got Even Riskier”
On January 21, 2020, Governor Murphy signed Senate Bill 3170 into law, amending the Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act, New Jersey’s mini-WARN Act (NJ WARN Act), in several significant ways and further deviating from the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (federal WARN Act). The amended NJ WARN Act is set to take effect on July 19, 2020.
Over the past two years, city councils in three of the four largest cities in Texas — Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas — each have passed ordinances requiring local employers to provide their employees with paid sick leave. In each instance, the new proposed ordinance was met with fierce resistance from local businesses, staffing agencies and professional associations. Those aligned against the ordinances promised that their adoption would be followed swiftly by lawsuits. What’s more, the opposition was supported by none other than Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who took a hardline stance that such ordinances violate the Texas Minimum Wage Act. The purpose of the Minimum Wage Act, Paxton argued, was to set a uniform statewide policy with respect to wage requirements that municipal governments had no right to circumvent. Despite all of this pushback, the city council in each city overwhelmingly voted to adopt the ordinance.
The ordinances in all three cities are similar and contain some of the same key features but each also has its own distinguishing characteristics:
Continue reading “Uncertainty Remains for Texas Paid Sick Leave Ordinances”