Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Attorney General recently issued a supplemental regulation to the state's new sick leave law that aims to provide a "safe harbor" to Massachusetts employers that had qualifying paid time off ("PTO") policies (including sick, personal, vacation, and/or combined PTO policies) in plac

Proposed regulations to the voter-approved Massachusetts Earned Sick Leave Law, which takes effect July 1, 2015, were released by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office on April 24th. The proposed regulations can be found at: http://www.mass.gov/ago/docs/regulations/proposed/940-cmr-33-00-propo

Massachusetts courts recently clarified two issues of great interest to employers in the hospitality and restaurant industries. On the one hand, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that Massachusetts law does not prohibit employers from adopting a no-tipping policy. On the other hand, the

Effective April 7, 2015, the Massachusetts Maternity Leave Act will be replaced by the Parental Leave Act ("PLA"). The new law expands the scope of the Maternity Leave Act by extending parental leave rights to men.

In one of his last acts as Massachusetts Governor, Deval Patrick signed into law an amendment to the Massachusetts Maternity Leave Act (“MMLA”), extending coverage of the Act to male employees. The new parental leave law, signed January 7, 2015, will be effective on April 7, 2015 (90 days after its

Effective April 1, 2015, Massachusetts will become the fourth state (after New York, California and Hawaii) to extend employment protections specifically to domestic workers. The "Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights"1 creates new legal obligations for any individual or family in Massachusetts who emplo

Executive Summary: On election day, Massachusetts voters approved a ballot initiative requiring employers to provide sick time to their employees. Absent legislative repeal, the mandatory sick time law will become effective on July 1, 2015.

On November 4, 2014, Massachusetts voters approved a ballot question that requires all private sector employers to provide employees with up to 40 hours of sick leave per calendar year. Under the new law, which goes into effect on July 1, 2015, employers with 11 or more employees must provide employ

Voters in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have approved a ballot measure requiring Massachusetts employers to provide up to 40 hours of sick time each calendar year to all employees.

Massachusetts’s new domestic violence leave law – which became effective on August 8, 2014 – created new obligations for Massachusetts employers of 50 or more employees.

The (somewhat confusingly titled) Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) broadly prohibits states from enacting or enforcing laws that affect the prices, routes or services that motor carriers offer for the transportation of property. On September 30, 2014, in Massachusett

A new Massachusetts law gives employees who are victims of domestic violence a right to job-protected leave from work.

Under new law, Massachusetts hospitals must limit the number of patients assigned to a nurse working in an intensive care unit (“ICU”) to no more than two. “An Act relative to patient limits in all hospital intensive care units,” signed by Governor Deval Patrick on June 30, 2014, applies to ICUs in

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has signed new law mandating increases in the state’s minimum wage to $11.00 an hour by January 1, 2017.

In a recent decision, Judge Young of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts held that an arbitration agreement does not need to specifically reference the Massachusetts Payment of Wages Law in order for claims under that statute to be subject to arbitration. Specifically, the dist

The use of LinkedIn to notify professional contacts of a change in employment did not constitute competition. according to a recent Massachusetts ruling. In KNF&T v. Muller, No. 13-3676-BLS1 (October 24, 2013), the Massachusetts Superior Court denied a request for a preliminary injunction where an e

The First Circuit Court of Appeals issued its most significant decision to date on non-solicitation provisions in restrictive covenants by upholding a preliminary injunction in Corporate Technologies, Inc. v. Harnett, No. 13-1706 (August 23, 2013). The court affirmed a decision from the District of

On August 12, 2013, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruled that the state Wage Act does not preempt common law claims for unpaid wages. Employers may therefore be liable to employees for unpaid wages for up to six years, under breach of contract or similar theories.

Nearly 10 years ago, California became the first – and so far only – state to pass a law mandating hospitals assign a certain number of patients to each nurse. As we reported in May, a growing number of legislatures in other states have or are currently considering nurse-to-patient ratio legislation

Massachusetts has repealed both the Fair Share Contribution (FSC) provisions and the employee Health Insurance Responsibility Disclosure (HIRD) form collection requirement that were part of the Commonwealth’s 2006 health care reform efforts. The repeal was included in the state’s 2014 fiscal year bu