On March 20, 2023, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced that it will open the certification period for its second annual certification cycle shortly on March 31, 2023. As previously reported, beginning in 2022, supply and service federal contractors and subcontractors (contractors) are required to annually certify the status of their annual affirmative action plans (AAPs). Like last year’s schedule, the OFCCP Contractor Portal is intended to be open until June 29, 2023.
Category: Counseling & Compliance Training
Ninth Circuit Rules California Employers Can Require Arbitration Agreements
Some good news for California employers: recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that California employers can require employees and applicants to sign arbitration agreements as a condition of employment, reversing its own prior decision which vacated U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California’s grant of a preliminary injunction against enforcement of Assembly Bill 51 (AB 51).
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NLRB: Severance Pay Cannot Include Condition to Waive Rights Under NLRA
The decision of the National Labor Relations Board (the Board) in McLaren Macomb, 372 NLRB No. 58 ( Feb. 21, 2023), reinstates a limit on the confidentiality, non-disclosure, and non-disparagement clauses that employers may include in severance agreements with most of their lower-level employees. While the Board bills its decision as a return to the standard applied in earlier cases, this decision suggests that the Board will take a broader view of how such agreements infringe on employees’ rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.
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NLRB Finds Secret Workplace Recordings to Be Protected Activity
On February 13, 2022, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) held that Starbucks violated federal labor law at multiple locations in Philadelphia in 2019 and 2020. The decision, issued by the NLRB’s three Democrats, found that Starbucks unlawfully threatened, surveilled, and interrogated employees, prohibited discussion of terms and conditions of employment, reduced the work hours of union supporters, and ultimately terminated two employees for engaging in protected activity.
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Illinois Department of Labor Publishes Final Rules Regarding Illinois Equal Pay Registration Certificates
The Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) recently published its final rules regarding Illinois Equal Pay Registration Certificates (EPRC). The final rules largely adopt the proposed rules issued last June, which was discussed here in a prior post. However, the rules include a few notable changes.
Denver Revises Municipal Code to Increase Civil Penalties Related to Wage Theft Violations and Expands “Up the Chain” Liability
On Tuesday, January 10, 2023, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock signed Bill 22-1614 after it passed the Denver City Council the previous day by unanimous vote. With the Bill’s passage comes increased penalties and new requirements related to wage theft, specifically including joint liability for general contractors, effective upon publication.
Denver’s minimum wage ordinance imposes a current minimum wage of $17.29 per hour, and before Bill 22-1614 passed, the ordinance provided certain penalties for employers that did not pay their workers based on the designated minimum wage. Indeed, prior to the bill’s passing, Denver’s minimum wage ordinance allowed employees to file complaints to the City Auditor within one year of a violation and provided a private right of action for three years to employees to seek to recover unpaid wages plus 12% interest, $100 for each day the violation continued, and liquidated damages three times the amount of unpaid wages.