State Employment Law Articles

In Bustos v. Global P.E.T., Inc., (E065869, Cal. Ct. App. January 16, 2018), Plaintiff William Bustos and a number of his co-workers were terminated by Global in an economic layoff. Bustos sued Global alleging his disabilities were a substantial motivating reason for his termination.

The First Appellate District had a second occasion to rule upon class certification issues in the case of Duran v. U.S. Bank (“Duran II”), and again ruled that class treatment was improper because Plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that common issues predominated or that the case would be manageable a

Physician practices and other health care providers respond to numerous requests for confidential patient information from patients and others. Mistakes made by employees fulfilling such requests for medical records or making similar disclosures can expose the practice to civil litigation.

Executive Summary: On January 12, 2018, the Maryland Legislature overrode Governor Hogan’s 2017 veto of the Maryland Healthy Working Families Act (the “Act”). As a result, Maryland employers with 15 or more employees are now required to provide for up to 40 hours of paid sick leave on annual basis t

Certain Maryland employers must begin offering paid sick and safe leave to their employees under the Maryland Healthy Working Families Act beginning February 12, 2018.

On January 12, 2018, the Maryland legislature overrode Governor Larry Hogan’s (R) 2017 veto of the Healthy Working Families Act, Maryland HB 1 (“the Act”), enacting legislation that requires Maryland businesses to provide covered employees with sick and safe leave. The Act says it preempts local sic

On December 15, 2017, the Puerto Rico Department of the Treasury (the “PR Treasury”) issued Tax Policy Circular Letter No. 17-02 (“CL 7-02”) announcing the 2018 applicable contribution limits for qualified retirement plans. Pursuant to Section 1081.01(h) of the Puerto Rico Internal Revenue Code of 2

Recent changes to Puerto Rico’s tax treatment of certain retirement plans have taken effect. Act No. 106 of August 23, 2017 (“Act 106”) amended Section 1081.01 of the Puerto Rico Internal Revenue Code as amended, (the “PR Code”), to reflect changes in the rules governing Puerto Rico qualified retire

In his first official act upon taking office, newly elected Governor Phil Murphy signed an executive order barring state agencies from asking job applicants about wage history. Former Governor Chris Christie previously vetoed legislation that would have prohibited employers from requesting salary hi

California employers should remember that they must revise their notice to employees regarding the federal Earned Income Tax Notice to include California’s version of it. Effective January 1, 2017, employers must revise their notice to employees regarding the earned income tax credit when issuing W-

In October and November of this past year, we wrote about two Minnesota court decisions – Mid-America Business Systems v. Sanderson et al., Case No. 17-3876 (Dist. Minn. Oct. 6, 2017) and Safety Center, Inc. v. Stier, Case No. A17-0360 (Minn. App., Nov. 6, 2017) — that addressed the adequacy of cons

Is obesity a disability under California law? Are a supervisor’s alleged “fat remarks” sufficient evidence of disability discrimination? On December 21, 2017, a California Appellate Court published an extensive decision regarding obesity as a disability under California law and issued further guidan

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently held that individuals acting as board members and investors cannot be held personally liable under the Massachusetts Payment of Wages Law, M.G.L. c. 149, § 148, for a company’s failure to pay wages. Only board members or investors who also served as

Citing to estimates in 2017 “more than 5.3 million North Carolinians were … affected by a data breach,” Attorney General Josh Stein and Rep. Jason Saine announced on January 8 proposed legislation aimed at protecting state residents from becoming victims of identity theft.

In Kim v. Reins International California, Inc. (B278642, Cal. Ct. App., December 29, 2017), the State of California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District addressed for the first time the question of whether an employee-plaintiff, who had settled and dismissed his individual claims under

Since mid-September 2017, more than 50 employers that use “biometric timeclocks” in Illinois have been targeted with class action lawsuits alleging violations of the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”). A unanimous ruling issued on December 21, 2017, by the Illinois Appellate Court, c

Executive Summary: On January 4, 2018—just days after California began selling recreational marijuana and became poised to become the largest legal market for the drug in the U.S.—the Department of Justice changed tactics on marijuana enforcement by rescinding the “Cole Memo” and other internal guid

New York employers should expect proposals to “combat sexual harassment in the workplace” in the 2018-2019 Executive Budget or as standalone proposals, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced in his 2018 State of the State address on January 3, 2018.

Preventing sexual harassment in the workplace and clarifying the definition of retaliatory action are the topics of two bills introduced on the first day of New York’s 2018 legislative session.

In addition to fueling the filing of more sexual harassment lawsuits across the country, the recent sexual harassment scandals involving high-powered public figures have led to legislative efforts to prevent settlements of sexual harassment suits from being “confidential,” and to disallow individual