Labor & Employment Blog

The EEOC recently issued its final regulation to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA). The PWFA went into effect on June 27, 2023, and the final regulation goes into effect on June 18, 2024. Chamberlain’s previous alert on this topic can be found here.

The PWFA requires businesses that employ fifteen (15) or more employees to make reasonable accommodations for an employee’s or job applicant’s known limitations related to “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions” unless doing so would impose an “undue hardship” on the employer. “Undue ...

Last week, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) released the final version of the Employee or Independent Contractor Classification (the “Final Rule”). The Final Rule is published in the Federal Register and will take effect on March 11, 2024.

The Final Rule rescinds the broader rule issued during former President Donald Trump’s presidency, which focused heavily on the worker’s control over the work and opportunity for profit or loss in determining whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Under the Final ...

Last week, the Department of Labor (DOL) released a proposed rule that, if adopted, will raise the salary requirements for certain exempt employees. The DOL estimates its new rule could extend overtime protections to more than three million workers.

Most employers already know the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires covered employers to pay most employees an overtime premium for all hours worked over forty in a workweek. This general rule, however, does not apply to employees in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity, as long as the employee earns a ...

On August 18, 2023, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a much-awaited decision that broadens the scope of potential liability for employers under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. For about thirty years, the Fifth Circuit has applied a more restrictive standard for disparate-treatment liability under Title VII’s anti-discrimination provision—requiring an employee to prove alleged discrimination in connection with an “ultimate employment decision,” such as hiring, granting leave, discharging, promoting, or compensating. No more. The en banc Fifth ...

On August 2, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) changed the standard for deciding whether an employer’s workplace policy is lawful. In the recent Stericycle decision, the NLRB issued a split ruling reversing a Trump-era standard that made it easier for employers to defend workplace policies against claims that the policies deter employees from exercising their rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). Among other rights, Section 7 of the NLRA guarantees most non-managerial employees the right to engage in “concerted ...