State Employment Law Articles

Even though Georgia’s voter-approved constitutional amendment for a sweeping new restrictive covenant law said it would take effect upon ratification, a debate has been developing in the state over whether that is the effective date. (For more information on the new law, see our article, Georgia Vot

Massachusetts’ new law on criminal offender record information (“CORI”) bans the use of questions about criminal history on an “initial written application” for employment. This ban became effective November 4, 2010. The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), charged with enforcemen

The New Jersey Supreme Court has held that a wage claim may be timely even though the alleged discrimination occurred outside the New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination’s two-year statute of limitations. Alexander v. Seton Hall Univ., No. A-87-09 (Nov. 23, 2010). According to the Court, this is bec

The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled 5-2 that an employee who engages in self-help and circumvents the pretrial discovery process by secretly copying her employer’s records for use in a discrimination lawsuit may be insulated from discipline and/or termination. The Court’s decision in Quinlan v. C

In good news for employers, the Minnesota Court of Appeals has clarified that “employment misconduct” includes a misrepresentation made during hiring and affirmed the denial of unemployment benefits. Santillana v. Central Minnesota Council on Aging and Minnesota Dep’t of Employment and Econ. Dev., N

An employer’s defamation lawsuit against protesters who wrongly accused it of racially motivated firings could proceed, the California Court of Appeal has ruled in an unpublished opinion. Overhill Farms Inc. v. Lopez, No. G042984 (Cal. Ct. App. Nov. 15, 2010). Affirming the denial of the protestors’

Employers in California may be at risk for significant penalties under California’s requirement that employees be provided with “suitable seating,” under a ruling of a state appeals court in Bright v. 99¢ Only Stores, No. B220016 (Cal. Ct. App. Nov. 12, 2010). The case was brought under state Indust

By a margin of just 4,341 votes, Arizona voters decided to make their state the fifteenth to allow the use of medical marijuana. The “Yes” vote on Proposition 203 had trailed for nearly a week following Election Day, but made a surprising comeback as absentee and provisional ballots were counted. Th

Labor & Employment attorney H. Mark Adams has authored an article on the impact the recent general elections will have on Louisiana employers.

The District of Columbia Department of Employment Services (DOES) has issued its long-awaited poster under the D.C. Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act (SSLA). The poster comes four months after the agency issued final rules under the D.C. paid leave law, which was passed in 2008.

This Election Day, joining the majority of states, Georgia became a state where restrictive covenants should be regularly enforced. Voters in Georgia approved a constitutional amendment permitting a new restrictive covenant law to take effect immediately. The new law is a sweeping change for the sta

Showing continued hostility toward employee arbitration agreements, the California Court of Appeal has struck down as unconscionable an arbitration agreement because the employer failed to provide the high-level employee a copy of the arbitration rules referenced in the agreement.

Washington’s minimum wage, currently the highest in the nation, will increase to $8.67 an hour effective January 1, 2011, an increase of 12 cents over the 2010 rate. The state minimum wage applies to agricultural and non-agricultural jobs in Washington, including tipped employees, as Washington’s mi

Under the New York State Construction Industry Fair Play Act, effective October 26, construction workers are presumed to be employees, and must be treated as employees, as opposed to independent contractors, unless they meet three criteria. The new section to the New York Labor Law takes aim at work

The California Supreme Court will address whether certain California statutes, which set strict standards for obtaining injunctions against labor unions, violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution because they afford preferential treatment to speech concerning labor dispute

Outdated information on a financial services industry recruiter’s database is not protectable as a trade secret where the company did not take adequate safeguards to protect the information and the information was available on the Internet, a federal district court in New York has ruled. Sasqua Grou

A federal court in Oklahoma has held that an employer willfully violated the state’s drug testing law, making it liable for damages, after it denied employment to an applicant for testing positive for a drug that is not among those listed in state regulations as approved for employment substance abu

The United States Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and the Puerto Rico Department of Labor and Human Resources, Labor Standards Division, have entered into a partnership agreement aimed at ensuring compliance by employers in Puerto Rico with both federal and commonwealth labor laws that

On October 20, 2010, the New York State Department of Labor will submit a consolidated Hospitality Industry Wage Order for publication in the State Register. The Wage Order, if adopted, would impose additional costs on employers while modifying current standards in certain areas such as tip pooling,

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office has updated its earlier position communicated to Jackson Lewis and has informed Jackson Lewis that it will “probably” issue a guidance document about the amendment to the Massachusetts Personnel Records Statute. According to an official in the Attorney Gen