HR - General

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics will generate unprecedented opportunities and challenges for employers and workers. The accelerating pace of automation will likely lead to productivity increases on a scale not seen since the Industrial Revolution, while displacing tens of milli

According to reports on a recent survey, the vast majority of healthcare workers share sensitive medical information using non-secure email. The survey, conducted by Kickstand Communications, reportedly found that 87% of healthcare workers surveyed admitted to this practice. These results echo other

Every year state laws and local ordinances take effect after the first of the year, and 2018 is no exception. As always, Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute (WPI) has been tracking these developments. This article discusses key labor and employment laws and ordinances that will take effect during t

The Department of Labor (DOL) has confirmed the gig economy is alive and well, but the number of workers has increased only slightly in the past decade. The DOL released its much-anticipated “Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements Survey” report on June 7, 2018.

Developers and contractors in the construction industry have seen an increasing shortage of qualified labor in recent years. Apprenticeship programs are one way to attract workers to the industry and help them develop the skills necessary to succeed in the long-term. The current administration is ta

As summer approaches, most state legislatures have closed up shop for the year. Approximately 14 states are still in session, four of which are scheduled to adjourn in or around the end of June. Those jurisdictions that remain in session are enacting or advancing bills addressing a wide range of lab

ocial media is so powerful that some argue Russian manipulation of it changed the result of a U.S. presidential election. In the employment context, social media is not quite that powerful, but employment-context social media is pervasive, reaching interactions between employers and employees, inter

On April 24, 2018, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that foreign corporations cannot be sued in the United States under the Alien Tort Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1350 ("ATS"). This case – Jesner v. Arab Bank1– appears to eliminate the ATS as a vehicle for plaintiffs to bring claims against f

The pace of innovation in healthcare today has produced an amazing increase in the number of available mobile apps for health-related information. More than 300,000 healthcare apps are available online. These apps are developed and designed to fit within the “connected health model” which attempts t

Employers are feeling some regulatory relief following a year that brought several changes to workplace policy, but are also grappling with the uncertainty these shifts have created. Sweeping regulatory changes have left them to redesign policies and strategies that had only recently been updated, w

May begins the legislative homestretch for a number of states. Nearly half of the state legislatures have adjourned for the year, and another nine are expected to end their sessions by the end of the month. As a result, only about 30 new bills and ordinances were introduced in April, down from the h

On April 17th, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”), a component of the U.S. Commerce Department, released Version 1.1 of the Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (“Cybersecurity Framework Version 1.1”), which incorporates feedback from NIST-led worksh

Attempting to advance a novel theory of law, several banks filed a class action in Illinois federal court against a grocery store chain arising out of a data breach that resulted in the theft of 2.4 million credit and debit cards. Community Bank of Trenton v. Schnuck Markets, Inc. After the breach,

Every minute of every workday, multinational employers rely on sophisticated HR information technologies to manage their global workforces. Laws worldwide regulate information technology, and so multinationals must comply, globally. Some laws regulating information technology expressly address the e

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) continued to deal with tumult over the “joint-employer” issue. On March 1, the Board asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to resume considering an appeal of Browning-Ferris Industries, 362 NLRB No. 186 (2015), the NLRB decision that made it e

The nation’s patchwork of state data breach notification laws is now complete. All 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands, have enacted breach notification laws requiring private organizations or government entities to notify individuals of a securi

Securing data held by mobile devices is largely reliant upon technology, and a recent report by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) takes aim at how that technology can be both improved and better utilized. The report, published in February 2018 and titled, Mobile Security Updates: Understanding th

Last week, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs (“Division”) announced that a physician group affiliated with more than 50 South Jersey medical and surgical practices agreed to pay $417,816 and improve data security practices to settle allegati

While the surge of state-level legislation introduced in the first quarter of 2018 has waned, some significant labor and employment bills are advancing through their legislative chambers. In March, over 300 labor and employment bills were actively considered at the state and local levels, but only a

With uncanny prescience, Lewis Carroll captured the vibe of the last year when he wrote: "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what wouldn't be, it would. You