This year brought many changes to Colorado’s employment laws. We offer a summary addressing the new regulations, and suggestions for employers to prepare for the new year.
To view the full alert, visit the Faegre Drinker website.
USCIS Announces H-1B Cap Has Been Reached for Fiscal Year 2024
On December 13, 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it had received enough petitions to meet the annual numerical allocation of 85,000 H-1B visas for fiscal year 2024 (FY2024), which includes 65,000 regular and 20,000 U.S. advanced degree (U.S. master’s degree) cap petitions. The next period during which registrants will be allowed to submit H-1B cap registrations is expected to be in the first couple of weeks of March 2024 for an October 1, 2024, (FY2025) employment start date for successful registrants.
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U.S. Supreme Court to Clarify Whistleblower Statutes Regarding Employee’s Burden of Proof
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide in Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC whether a whistleblower must prove that an employer acted with “retaliatory intent” to be protected under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The Court’s decision will settle a split between the circuit courts, which will impact how employers defend against Sarbanes-Oxley Act retaliation claims.
Child Labor Law Violations: U.S. Department of Labor Issues New Assessment Procedures for Calculating Civil Monetary Penalties
On November 28, 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division announced that it will assess child labor civil monetary penalties for nonserious injury and noninjury violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act on a per-violation basis, rather than on a per-child basis as it had previously done, significantly increasing the aggregate of potential penalties.
To view the full alert, visit the Faegre Drinker website.
Menopause in the Workplace: A Multi-Faceted Issue
Menopause is something that approximately 50 percent of the workforce will experience during their working lives, but it is still infrequently discussed or considered in the workplace and many of us are unaware of how menopause can affect those going through it. However, employers are seeing an increase in employees concerned about menopause and their experience with it at work. This is a multi-faceted issue that encompasses a range of potential employment law issues.
Discrimination
Most countries do not recognise menopause as a characteristic that is specifically protected by discrimination laws. But employees experiencing menopause may be protected by discrimination laws relating to age, sex, disability and gender reassignment. Generally, people experiencing menopause are women aged between 45 and 55 so any unfavourable treatment (whether direct or indirect) towards an employee experiencing menopause could amount to sex and/or age discrimination. Gender reassignment discrimination may also be relevant if the employee experiencing menopause is transgender.
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Going Digital: How Different Countries Are Modernising and Digitalising Their Immigration Systems
Several countries have been slowly moving away from physical forms of confirming the immigration status of foreign nationals (e.g., vignettes or visa stickers in passports and residence permits) and towards the adoption of digital authentication methods. Most commonly, we are seeing eVisas or digital visas introduced for short-term visitor travel; however, some countries are also now adopting them for long-term stays. This article will focus primarily on the changes being made to the UK’s immigration system and also describe briefly some other interesting recent developments.
To view the full alert, visit the Faegre Drinker website.