State Employment Law Articles

Rhode Island recently became the fifth state in 2014 and the 17th state nationwide to enact legislation restricting access by employers to applicants' and employees' personal online content.1 The Rhode Island law follows similar laws enacted this year by Wisconsin, Tennessee,2 Oklahoma, and Louisian

In Rhea v. General Atomics, the California Court of Appeal issued an important ruling confirming that employers may require salaried exempt employees to use accrued vacation/PTO time for partial day absences in any increment, including increments of less than four hours, without violating the salary

Recent updates to the official District of Columbia Code appear to relieve employers at this time from any obligation to comply with the District’s Sick and Safe Leave Act Amendments Act of 2013 — after many employers in the District of Columbia, particularly those in the hospitality industry, alrea

Whether the parties to an arbitration agreement agreed to class arbitration is a question for the arbitrator, not the trial court, the California Court of Appeal has ruled, reversing an order dismissing class claims alleging violations of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act and Unfair Compe

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed legislation amending the New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL) to protect unpaid interns against workplace discrimination and retaliation.

Rejecting a former employee’s assertion that the “excessive” and “prohibitive” costs of arbitration made his employment agreement’s arbitration clause unconscionable, the Tennessee Court of Appeals at Knoxville has affirmed an order directing arbitration in a wrongful termination action brought unde

The “Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act” (House Bill 5701), signed by Governor Pat Quinn on July 19, 2014, prohibits employers, or any agent of an employer, from considering or inquiring into a job applicant’s criminal record or history until the individual has been determined qualified

The California Legislature is now taking its last extended breather of the 2013-2014 legislative session. It began its summer break on July 3, and returns on Monday, August 4 for the sprint through the final days of the session.

In its first employment-related class certification decision since its seminal ruling in Duran v. U.S. Bank,1 the California Supreme Court, in a fragmented opinion, reversed the denial of class certification for a group of newspaper delivery carriers who alleged they were employees misclassified as

Employers with at least 50 full-time employees in the San Francisco Bay Area must offer commuter benefits, such as payments for commuter transit passes made with employees’ pre-tax earnings, to any employee who works at least 20 hours per week no later than September 30, 2014.

On July 19, 2014, 2014, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law the Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act, which will go into effect on January 1, 2015. The new law will restrict the timing of pre-employment inquiries by Illinois employers about a job applicant’s criminal past. The Act

In an effort to increase revenues and to set up the basis for an upcoming restructuring of our tax system, the Puerto Rico Governor signed into law Act 77 of July 1, 2014 (Act 77). Act 77 amends various tax legislation, including the Puerto Rico Internal Revenue Code of 2011 (the New PR Code).

A Louisiana appellate court recently decided that a non-competition agreement was unenforceable. But not because it contained unreasonable geographic or temporal restrictions or failed to strictly comply with Louisiana’s non-compete statute. Instead, the court found that the non-competition obligati

Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded, in Dilts v. Penske Logistics, LLC, that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 19942 (FAAAA) does not preempt the application of California’s meal and rest break laws to motor carriers because these state laws are

On July 7, 2014, New York became the 23rd state (plus the District of Columbia) to legalize medical marijuana, bringing the number of Americans who may lawfully use the drug with proper medical certification and/or supervision to approximately 100 million. The overwhelming acceptance by Americans of

The Louisiana Court of Appeals, First Circuit, recently affirmed a lower court’s denial of a preliminary injunction to enforce a covenant not to compete in Gulf Industries, Inc. v. Boylan (La. App. 1 Cir. June 6, 2014). The case demonstrates continued careful scrutiny by Louisiana courts of non-comp

An employee may contract with his employer for a limitations period for filing discrimination lawsuits shorter than that which is prescribed by the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“LAD”) (i.e., less than the statutory two years), the New Jersey Appellate Division has held. Rodriguez v. Raymou

How and when employers can request and use a person’s criminal record information during the hiring process and for other employment purposes has become a hot topic over the last few years at the federal, state and local level. In the last 18 months, various states and cities have enacted legislatio

An employee who repeatedly falsified his employment status to obtain employment, as his employer learned only after he was laid off a second time and filed suit, was not barred by the doctrines of “after-acquired evidence” or “unclean hands” from asserting claims for alleged disability discriminatio

Concluding its 2014 legislative session, the New York legislature has passed amendments to the Wage Theft Protection Act and new medical marijuana legislation. Each of these enactments is potentially relevant to all New York employers.