It is practically impossible these days to turn on the news, get on the internet or listen to the radio without hearing about some polarizing event. Whether it is a debate over the presidential candidates, the #BlackLivesMatter movement, or the legality of North Carolina’s HB-2 (dubbed the “Bathroom Bill”) or other similar state law, the American populace is being bombarded from all sides ...
As discussions regarding the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (“LGBT”) employees in the workplace increase, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC” or “Commission”) offers guidance concerning treatment of LGBT individuals as a protected class under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Last month, the EEOC issued What You Should Know About EEOC and the Enforcement Protections for LGBT Workers (the “Guidance”) ...
When the Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Jacqueline A. Berrien, and EEOC Commissioner Victoria A. Lipnic sat down for an informal conversation regarding workplace diversity during the Diversity Luncheon at the National Conference on Equal Employment Opportunity Law, the dialogue quickly moved to the possible effects of budget cuts on diversity in the public workplace ...
What is Executive Order 13658? On February 12, 2014, President Obama signed Executive Order 13658, “Establishing a Minimum Wage for Contractors,” as a means to increase the minimum wage for workers providing services pursuant to federal construction and service contracts (the “Executive Order”) ...
On December 1, 2015, several amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure took effect. While some changes are rather minor, others are expected to have a significant impact on litigation in federal court. Lawyers have been talking about these amendments for years as they were developed, proposed, revised, and eventually approved, but comparatively little has been said about what the parties to litigation need to know. Three key takeaways are discussed below ...
The H-1B visa filing frenzy is upon us once again! Because of the chronic shortage of nonimmigrant visas for foreign workers in the specialty occupation category (H-1B visas), employers seeking to hire new H-1B workers must file their petitions on April 1, 2014 for work beginning October 1, 2014 ...
The Treasury Department has announced further extensions for medium-sized and large-sized employers for compliance with the “employer mandate” of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). The employer mandate requires employers with a threshold level of employees to provide affordable health insurance to 95% of their full-time employees. Under the ACA, a full-time employee is defined as any employee who works on average 30 or more hours per week ...
The West Virginia Legislature has brought West Virginia more in line with its neighbors in regulating how employers must pay former employees upon the employee’s departure. Historically, West Virginia has imposed different standards for providing an employee his or her final pay depending on whether the employee quit, quit with notice, was laid off, or was terminated ...
In the latest development relating to West Virginia’s new aboveground storage tank (“AST”) legislation, yesterday afternoon the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (“WVDEP”) filed with the West Virginia Secretary of State its finalized Interpretive Rule outlining mechanisms for compliance with the imminent deadlines under the Aboveground Storage Tank Act (the “AST Act”), W. Va. Code §§ 22-30-1 et seq ...
In the latest development relating to West Virginia’s new aboveground storage tank (“AST”) legislation, on December 22, 2014, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (“WVDEP”) filed with the West Virginia Secretary of State its proposed legislative rule implementing the Aboveground Storage Tank Act (the “AST Act”), 47 C.S.R. 63 ...
The U.S. General Services Administration recently added Green Globes as an additional third-party green building certification system for federal government construction projects. With this addition, many are now asking about the difference between Green Globes and LEED. Green Globes has emerged, in some parts of the U.S., as a rival building option to the more well-known Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (“LEED”) system ...
With everything from alpacas, pigs and turkeys, to even a snake being claimed as service animals, it is not surprising that many business owners are asking what truly qualifies as a “service animal” under the law. Just last fall, a Wisconsin McDonald’s encountered a situation where a patron wanted to dine with her service kangaroo ...
Dispute is heating up over IRS’s attempts to get personal information about users of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies. Last November, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) filed a petition in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. It sought the court’s permission to serve a “John Doe” summons on Coinbase, Inc., a virtual currency exchanger in San Francisco ...
Despite the highly publicized announcement that enforcement of the “Pay-or-Play” mandate (which requires businesses to provide health insurance to all full-time employees or face yearly penalties of up to $3,000 per employee) has been delayed until 2015, important considerations remain for businesses and consumers about how they will ultimately be affected by the Affordable Care Act ...
Good news! The murkiness surrounding declarant rights in North Carolina became a little clearer this summer. On July 7, 2014, Governor McCrory signed an amendment to the Planned Community Act addressing the transfer of declarant rights. This article only addresses lender’s rights or liability surrounding declarant rights if that lender were in acquiring ownership of that collateral in the context of foreclosure or “deed in lieu ...
It is undeniable that technology and globalization are changing the way lawyers practice law. Technology has not just made people, places, and things much more accessible to us – it has impacted the way we store information and documents, the way we communicate with and advise clients, how we conduct investigations, and how we participate in discovery ...
Late yesterday afternoon, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) published on its website what it characterizes as a “rough draft” of its forthcoming emergency[1] rule (the “Draft Rule”), which is 79 pages in length. This Draft Rule comes nine days after the agency’s release of an Interpretive Rule implementing, in part, the new Aboveground Storage Tank Act (the “AST Act”), a summary of which is available here ...
On February 3, 2015, House Bill 2574 (“HB 2574”) was introduced in the West Virginia Legislature. HB 2574 proposes to remedy the unintended consequences to businesses created by the passage of the Aboveground Storage Tank Act (the “AST Act”) during the 2014 regular session of the Legislature immediately following the contamination of the Elk River from Freedom Industries, Inc ...
By the time you are reading this, the October 1 deadline to register all aboveground storage tanks (“ASTs”) in West Virginia has passed, and the world is still turning. If you have not yet registered your ASTs, it is still a good idea to register any tanks that qualify as ASTs as soon as you can. However, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (“WVDEP”) is proceeding with implementation of the Aboveground Storage Tank Act, W. Va ...
by Eric E. Kinder President Bush signed the ADA Amendments Act into law. The ADAAA significantly increases the scope of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 as it has been interpreted by federal courts by overturning several United States Supreme Court decisions regarding the Act. According to the Congressional Committees that oversaw the passage of the ADAAA, these amendments will restore the original Congressional intent behind the ADA ...
In a dramatic reversal, the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) today ruled that employers may not restrict employees from using the employer’s email to communicate with fellow employees about union matters, or other matters protected by Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”). In doing so, the Board ruled that a 2007 decision that allowed such a restriction was “clearly incorrect ...
An important case between the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (“AMCU”) and the Chamber of Mines of South Africa acting on behalf of Harmony Gold, AngloGold Ashanti and Sibanye Gold, has finally been decided by the Constitutional Court. The case concerns the extension of a 2013 wage collective agreement to AMCU members in terms of section 23(1)(d) of the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (“LRA”) ...
A previous Amendment to the Labour law raised some arguable and sensitive issues regarding termination of the employment contract when employee's behaviour represents criminal act. In fact, it was the employer who decided if an employee's behaviour represent a criminal act ...
On March 2, 2017, the California Supreme Court issued its much anticipated decision in the City of San Jose v. Superior Court of Santa Clara County case. In short, the Court determined that when a public official or employee uses a personal account to communicate about the conduct of public business, the writings are subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act, if those writings are not otherwise exempt from the disclosure requirements ...
The February 14 decision in a closely watched Fourth Circuit False Claims Act (FCA) case did not, as initially anticipated, address the issue of the validity of statistical sampling to establish FCA liability. However, it did address another question that has split the circuits—whether the U.S. Department of Justice has the unreviewable right to veto FCA settlements in cases in which it has declined to intervene. See United States ex rel. Michaels v. Agape Senior Community, et al ...
