In Wilson v. the La Jolla Group, a California Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s denial of class certification of independent contractors’ wage and hour claims who alleged they were misclassified. The court affirmed long-standing class action principles that certification requires a…
Rule to Nix Trump Joint Employer Test Clears White House Review
The White House has cleared a U.S. Department of Labor final rule that would repeal the Trump-era joint employer rule. The Trump administration rule shielded companies from shared liability for wage violations. The action signals the imminent release of a rule that will pave a path for shared…
Minnesota Adopts Federal Covid Shot-or-Test Employer Mandate
Minnesota has adopted the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration Covid-19 shot or weekly testing emergency standard for employers with 100 or more employees. Minnesota is the first state to announce it has adopted federal OSHA’s Covid-19 shot or weekly testing emergency…
Apple Will Now Require Employees to Submit Proof of Covid-19 Booster Shot or Negative Test
Apple Inc. now requires all corporate and store employees to get a Covid-19 booster shot, the company announced in an internal e-mail. Once an employee is eligible to receive a booster shot, he or she must comply within four weeks. Otherwise, the employee will need to take frequent tests to enter…
Oregon OSHA Announces Stance on Federal Vaccine-or-Test Standard
The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division on Jan. 13 said that because the U.S. Supreme Court has stayed the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Covid-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard, it “will not move forward with adopting the same or similar…
Employers, Don’t Ignore Covid-19 Just Because the Vax-or-Test ETS Is Gone
The U.S. Department of Labor recently cited an auto-parts supplier for failing to protect its workers against Covid-19 in the workplace, emphasizing the importance of employers complying with U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration…
As White-Collar Layoffs Rise, Blue-Collar Resilience Faces Test in 2023
Layoffs at white-collar companies are beginning to increase. Now the question hanging over the economy in 2023 is whether that trend spreads to blue-collar industries as interest rates take a toll. Average layoffs in finance and insurance from September to November nearly doubled from a year ago,…
U.S. Supreme Court Raises Bar in Religious Accommodation Test
In Groff v. Dejoy, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously created a higher standard for companies to measure the burden an employee’s religious accommodation request would impose on its operation. The justices on Thursday declined a Christian former U.S. Postal Service worker’s attempt to…
NLRB Affirms Its Test for When Adverse Action Is Motivated by Protected Conduct
In Intertape Polymer Corp., the U.S. National Labor Relations Board reaffirmed the standard it will apply when determining whether an adverse employment action was motivated by employee conduct protected by the National Labor Relations Act. The board explained that a 2019 decision in…
CFOs Raise Their Outlook for North America’s Economy and Test the Waters With GenAI on a Budget
Fifty-seven percent of chief financial officers rate the current North American economy favorably, up from 34% in the second quarter and marking the highest reading since the first quarter of 2022, according to a survey of 116 CFOs across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico by Deloitte. Net optimism for…