On April 4, 2017, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals became the first federal appeals court to rule that Title VII protects private employees from discrimination on account of sexual orientation. The decision in Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana marks a departure from a long line of cases in both the Seventh … Read more
Elections matter, and so do nominees to the United States Supreme Court. President Trump’s nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Court may have a substantial impact on federal employment law. This year the US Supreme Court is set to hear cases on touching a on variety of employer hot-button topics, including, one we’ve previously blogged … Read more
We have previously written on the advisability of employers entering into arbitration agreements with their employees that include a waiver of the employee’s right to initiate or join class action litigation against the employer. Such agreements help guard against the possibility of potentially company-wide litigation over employment issues ranging from alleged wage and hour violations … Read more
On August 1, 2016, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed into law An Act to Establish Pay Equity, sweeping legislation that protects the rights of female employees to be paid the same wage for the same work as their male counterparts, and vice-versa, but also greatly expands the liability that employers might face. In order to … Read more
North Carolina made national news this Spring and Summer by enacting legislation requiring individuals to use the bathroom for the gender that matched the gender on his or her birth certificate. Many saw this as the codification of discrimination against individuals on the basis of their gender identity, and North Carolina’s actions made this a … Read more
THE PROBLEM: Opioid use and abuse. It crowds the headlines each day – another over-dose, death or accident caused by opioids. States are rushing to enact legislation to address the crisis; the U.S. Center for Disease Controls just published its first national guidelines for medical providers prescribing opioid pain-killers. Opioid addiction is particularly hard to … Read more
In New Hampshire, live free or die works both ways when it comes to carrying a gun on private property. As one would expect, New Hampshire has a fairly permissive gun permitting law, found at RSA c. 159. At the same time, however, New Hampshire does not regulate how the owners or lessees of private … Read more
Enacted by the National Labor Relations Board in December 2014 and set to go into effect on April 14, 2015, new NLRB regulations could potentially shift the balance of power in union elections strongly into the unions’ favor. Commentators and the dissenting Board members believe that these new rules, taken together, could shorten the average … Read more
Currently pending before the Massachusetts Legislature is a bill, proposed by Representative Sean Garballey, that would significantly curtail employers’ scheduling flexibility. The bill would eliminate the “clopening” shift, where an employee closes one day then opens the next, by requiring that employers give employees at least 11 hours off between shifts. Thus, if an employee … Read more
New Hampshire’s Equal Pay Act, R.S.A. 275:37 has new language which became effective January 1, 2015. Just as before, the new version of the Act, set forth at R.S.A. 275:37-1, is intended to prevent discrimination in pay on the basis of sex. The newly effective Equal Pay Act does contain some important changes. Going forward, … Read more