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DOL vs. DRS: Battle of the Employee / Independent Contractor Misclassification TestsFebruary 12, 2019 at 12:00 PM Employers who want to (or need to) use independent contractors often scratch their heads at a disconnect – how do you determine who is an independent contractor? I recall at one speaking engagement years ago, an employer who came up to me and asked: “So are you saying that there are TWO tests to determining if someone is an independent contractor?”
Yes, that’s exactly what I was saying.
The Connecticut Department of Labor and the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services (the state equivalent ...Tags: Law, Irs, Shipman Goodwin, Department of Labor, DRS, Connecticut Department of Labor, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Laws and Regulations, Wage & Hour, Manager & HR Pro’s Resource Center, Misclassification, Abc Test, Featured Content, Control Test, Factor Test, Indpedent Contractor 7 people like this. Like Busy General Assembly Session for 2019 Just Getting Started (Part 2)February 11, 2019 at 9:30 AM Yesterday, I tackled the bills floating around the Senate-side of the Connecticut General Assembly, In today’s post, let’s look at the House side to see what bills are under consideration there:
House Bill 5003 is the mirror-image bill of Senate Bill 1 on Paid Family & Medical Leave. Yesterday’s post gave the highlights, which apply equally to this bill too.
Similarly, proposed House Bill 5004 would raise the minimum wage in the state. The details are still to be drafted, but the CBIA has bee...Tags: Law, Senate, Training, Minimum Wage, House, Judiciary, Applications, Age Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, Senate Bill, Janus, Connecticut General Assembly, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Wage & Hour, Discrimination & Harassment, Legislative Developments 21 people like this. Like Busy Legislative Session Has Lots of Employment Law Bills On Tap (Part 1)February 10, 2019 at 11:58 AM The Connecticut General Assembly is already busy with a full compliment of employment law bills under consideration. At this point, it seems likely that several will pass in one form or another and thus employers should be playing close attention to the developments.
Here are a few of the Senate ones that I’m watching (I’ll tackle the House bills in tomorrow’s post):
Senate Bill 1 – This is the Paid Family and Medical Leave bill that has been kicking around for a few years. Late last week, th...Tags: Law, Senate, Restaurants, Bills, Legislation, Service, House, Scheduling, Sexual Harassment, Equal Pay, Shift, Senate Bill, Confidentiality, Connecticut General Assembly, Paid Leave, Wage & Hour 28 people like this. Like RIFs, WARN, OWBPA, Disparate Impact – An Alphabet Soup for a Future DownturnJanuary 15, 2019 at 9:13 AM In my prior post, I wondered aloud whether there were some rough waters ahead for employers. Apple recently announced that it would not meet it’s earnings estimates in the first quarter of 2019, in part because of soft demand from China. Other companies are expected to announce some similar issues.
Honestly, I’ve had enough conversations in the last few years with HR professionals who just haven’t lived through a major downturn.
Think about this way: For anyone who joined the workforce since 20...Tags: Apple, Layoffs, Law, China, Recession, Statistics, Class Actions, ADEA, Performance Review, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Laws and Regulations, Discrimination & Harassment, Manager & HR Pro’s Resource Center, Owbpa, Reduction in Force, Rif 31 people like this. Like An Early Prediction for 2019? Perhaps Dusting Off Your Reduction in Force GuidanceJanuary 14, 2019 at 8:38 AM You do a blog long enough and everything comes full circle. Back in January 2008, I took out my crystal ball and suggested that reductions in force (RIFs) and lawsuits would soon follow.
We all know what happened next. The economy crashed and discrimination claims at the EEOC peaked at their highest levels in more than 20 years.
So here we are 11 years later. A whole generation of HR professionals have never experienced a significant downturn. Are we headed there again in 2019?
I’ll leave t...Tags: Facebook, Law, Recession, Connecticut, Litigation, Class Actions, Bear Market, EEOC, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Wage & Hour, CHRO & EEOC, Discrimination & Harassment, Reduction in Force, Rif, Layoff, WARN 44 people like this. Like How the Government Shutdown Impacts EmployersJanuary 3, 2019 at 8:55 AM It’s sometimes easy to forget that the government shutdown has very real-world implications. Case in point? The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
As of now, it’s closed. The agency has even posted a notice about it on its’ website.
That doesn’t mean that the time limits for filing a charge have been extended. Generally, federal claims must be filed within 300 days of the alleged discrimination. As noted by the EEOC, “These time limits may not be extended because of the shut-down.”
The...Tags: Law, Government, Delays, Shutdown, EEOC, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Mediation, CHRO & EEOC, Discrimination & Harassment, Charges, Featured Content 8 people like this. Like New Year, New Law: No Salary Inquiries of Job Applicants (Mostly)January 1, 2019 at 6:59 PM January 1st is typically a time for new laws to kick in and 2019 is no exception.
For employers, the biggest change is one that I discussed way back in May with amendments to Connecticut’s Pay Equity law.
The new law prohibits employers from asking a job applicant his or her wage and salary history. But the prohibition does not apply in two situations:
if the prospective employee voluntarily discloses his or her wage and salary history, or;
to any actions taken by an employer, employment agency...Tags: Gender, Law, Pay, History, Connecticut, Salary, Ban, Equity, Inquiries, Laws and Regulations, Wage & Hour, Discrimination & Harassment, Legislative Developments, New Law, Pay Equity, Featured Content 32 people like this. Like Five Questions With… Sarah Poriss: Crumbling Foundations and EmployersDecember 19, 2018 at 4:21 PM  Tags: Google, Law, Connecticut, Employer, Sarah, Foreclosure, Dan, Homeowner, Sarah Poriss, Mediation, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Featured Content, Crumbling Foundation 54 people like this. Like The Shifting Ground for Connecticut Employers: Massachusetts Starts Retail Sales of MarijuanaNovember 20, 2018 at 10:49 AM Today, Massachusetts started retail sales of marijuana at two locations. Perhaps no location is closer to the population centers of Connecticut than Northampton — just 30 miles up the road from Enfield. It’s the first store east of the Mississippi River.
And lest you think that this is a Massachusetts-only affair, you need only watch the news reports from today to understand that there are plenty of Connecticut residents lining up seeking to avoid the restrictions in place in the Constitution S...Tags: Law, Massachusetts, Marijuana, Connecticut, Northampton, Pot, Medical Marijuana, Ada, Hiring, New England, Drug Test, Mississippi River, Waterbury, Enfield, Lamont, Human Resources (HR) Compliance 35 people like this. Like What Does the Blue Wave Mean for Connecticut Employment Law?November 8, 2018 at 9:55 AM The results are in: The General Assembly and the Governor’s office have been caught up in the Blue Wave in this state. Instead of a split, the Democratic party will control a sizable majority in both houses and the Governor’s Office.
But with Governor-Elect Ned Lamont coming from a business-side perspective and touting the need to grow business in Connecticut, what are we likely to see in the next legislative session?
Already legislative leaders are talking about a push for a series of progress...Tags: Law, Senate, Training, Minimum Wage, House, Connecticut, Union, Sexual Harassment, General Assembly, Legislative, Lamont, CT Mirror, Summary, Paid Leave, Legislative Developments, Paid Family Leave 44 people like this. Like Honoring the Life of One Organ Donor Recipient With CTFMLAOctober 30, 2018 at 9:01 AM Back in 2010, I wrote a simple blog post about how organ donors were protected under Connecticut’s FMLA law. In it, I recount how my father — 25 years prior at that time — donated a kidney to his brother (my uncle). At the time, I noted that both were well.
On Sunday, October 28, 2018, my uncle passed away after a short illness. Dr. Allen Schwartz was retired as the Deputy Director of Policy and Enterprise solutions at NYS Office for People with Developmental Disabilities and recently serv...Tags: Law, America, Connecticut, DMV, Obituary, Health Care, Donation, Organ, Organ Donor, Andrea, Allen, Aetna, Department of Labor, Transplant, US Department of Labor, FMLA 1 people like this. Like From the Archives: Halloween is No Excuse to HarassOctober 29, 2018 at 9:12 AM  Tags: Costumes, Halloween, Harassment, Law, Court, Cosplay, Sexual Harassment, Goya, Fed, Richardson, Marrero, Lester, Department of Treasury, Halloween Party, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Discrimination & Harassment 130 people like this. Like An Early Look at the Trends at the CHROOctober 24, 2018 at 6:51 AM As part of my continuing series of posts about the CHRO, and following up from the 75th Anniversary panel discussion earlier this week, I wanted to provide an early look of the statistics that are soon to be released by the agency.
I was provided a preliminary draft in preparation for the panel presentation; it should be out in the next week or two and I was asked not to divulge the specific numbers. Stay tuned for my deep dive into the numbers when they are officially released. (As a refresher...Tags: Harassment, Law, Trends, Claims, Complaints, Statistics, Numbers, Sexual Harassment, Sex Harassment, Increase, CHRO & EEOC, Discrimination & Harassment, Cchro, Chro, Settlements, Featured Content 12 people like this. Like CHRO Turns 75 … and Looks to the FutureOctober 23, 2018 at 8:27 AM Yesterday I had the opportunity (along with my fellow Shipman & Goodwin partner Peter Murphy) to speak as part of the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities’ (CHRO) 75th Anniversary celebration.
The panel — The Barriers to Employment Legal Update and Panel Discussion — was chock full of the types of insights, data and analyses that is so often overlooked in this Twitter generation.
We spent a good 90 minutes talking about the changes that have been going on at the CHRO and talked about wh...Tags: Human Rights, Law, Car, Commission, Opportunities, EEOC, Shipman Goodwin, Legal Division, Peter Murphy, CHRO & EEOC, Discrimination & Harassment, Cchro, Chro, 75th Anniversary, Cfepa, Featured Content 16 people like this. Like Wage & Hour Claims Still Going Strong and Yet…October 16, 2018 at 8:39 AM Back in 2011, I wondered aloud: Might the impact of new arbitration decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court bring about the end to big wage & hour class actions?
At the time, I said it would be premature.
Seven years later – what’s changed?
Well, as it turns out, wage & hour class actions are not dead. Indeed, based on some statistics, they’re as costly as ever.
Earlier this year, the Workplace Class Action Litigation report noted that just the top ten class action settlements totalled over $2.7...Tags: Law, Overtime, Wage, Hour, Class Action, Class Actions, Arbitration, U S Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit, FLSA, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Wage & Hour, Misclassification, Waiver, Featured Content, Hotel and Hospitality 26 people like this. Like Is Your Workplace Prepared for Layoffs?October 11, 2018 at 8:40 AM In the last few months, I’ve had some inquiries from employers asking about resources for layoffs.
Yawn.
Everyone remembers the layoffs of the recession, right?
Actually no, as it turns out.
In the ten years since the last great round of layoffs, there is a big group of new managers, directors, human resource personnel, lawyers etc that have joined the workforce. And, as it turns out, they really DON’T remember the layoffs. Unemployment is low. “Why would I need to worry about a Reduction in F...Tags: Law, Recession, Unemployment, Manufacturing, Class Actions, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Laws and Regulations, Discrimination & Harassment, Owbpa, Rif, Layoff, WARN, Featured Content, Hotel and Hospitality, Disparate Impact, 45 Days 43 people like this. Like Infertility – Must Employers Provide Accommodations to Employees Trying to Get Pregnant?October 10, 2018 at 10:24 AM Lawyers love their cocktail chatter. And at a recent bar event, an interesting hypothetical came up among lawyers:
Suppose an employee is trying to get pregnant and is thinking about infertility treatments. She’s considering time off for rest, and perhaps even for some in vitro fertilization (IVF) appointments. Perhaps even the doctor has said that the employee needs “light duty” work during certain days. Maybe things are a little more hazy; suppose the employee just says that they are underg...Tags: Law, Pregnancy, Treatment, Fertility, Connecticut, Leave, Ivf, Discrimination, Ada, Infertility, EEOC, Second Circuit, FMLA, Seventh Circuit, In Vitro Fertilization, Human Resources (HR) Compliance 46 people like this. Like For First Time, Court Protects Medical Marijuana Patient from DiscriminationOctober 8, 2018 at 8:12 PM One of the benefits of writing a blog as long as I have is that you get to track the progress of a law or legal development over a number of years.
It was back in 2012, for example, that I first provided a comprehensive summary of a new medical marijuana bill that was making it’s way through the legislature.
And I was quick to note that the law had enough questions attached to it that employers would be wise to spent a late night or two studying all of the quirks.
Now, years later, we have the f...Tags: Law, Marijuana, Pot, Puma, Discrimination, Medical Marijuana, Litigation, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Laws and Regulations, Discrimination & Harassment, Thc, Chris Engler, Featured Content, Palliative Use, First Time Court 47 people like this. Like EEOC Reports Sexual Harassment Claims Up 12 Percent NationwideOctober 4, 2018 at 11:08 AM Last year I talked about how the new era of sexual harassment claims was coming. The open question was: Would the number of claims actually increase?
The answer to that is now known: Yes.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released its preliminary data regarding workplace harassment today. And it’s findings shouldn’t be a surprise if you’ve been paying attention.
Among the notable pieces of data:
Charges filed with the EEOC alleging sexual harassment increased by more than 12 percent ...Tags: Harassment, Law, Anniversary, Connecticut, Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, EEOC, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, CHRO & EEOC, Discrimination & Harassment, Cchro, Chro, Featured Content, MeToo 27 people like this. Like The Importance of Listening in Employment LawOctober 4, 2018 at 9:21 AM If you’ve been playing close attention, this blog has been a bit quiet of late. Indeed, it’s probably the longest stretch between posts in the 11 years I’ve been doing this.
It’s not for lack of ideas.
Rather, after many years of spouting off (which, after all, is the underlying purpose of the blog), I found myself desiring to do a lot more listening. Listening to employers. Listening to my colleagues. Listening to other lawyers. And the only way to do that was to really stop writing for a w...Tags: Law, Listen, Employment law, Termination, Listening, Performance Review, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Featured Content, Jennifer Romig 9 people like this. Like Compliance Issues for Restaurants with Credit Card Fees, Tips to Waitstaff and Tip PoolingAugust 30, 2018 at 8:42 AM  Tags: Credit Cards, Law, Labor, Minimum Wage, Restaurant, Connecticut, Tips, Fees, Credit card fees, DOL, U S Department of Labor, FLSA, Connecticut Department of Labor, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Laws and Regulations, Wage & Hour 106 people like this. Like Religious Institutions Do Not Get Immunity from State Anti-Discrimination LawsAugust 13, 2018 at 9:23 AM On “Survivor”, one of my favorite broadcast TV shows (or, as my YouTube/Netflix watching teens might say — “what’s that?”) the notion of “immunity” plays a central role in the outcome of an episode.
And in a decision released last week by the Connecticut Supreme Court, whether or not to grant immunity again plays a pivotal role for religious employers. In its unanimous decision, the court refused to grant outright immunity to a religious institution from an employment discrimination claim. The ...Tags: Supreme Court, Law, Connecticut, Bar, Institutions, Religious, U S Supreme Court, Hartford, YouTube Netflix, United States Supreme Court, Connecticut Supreme Court, CHRO & EEOC, Discrimination & Harassment, Chro, Hosanna Tabor, Ministerial 18 people like this. Like How Employers Can Further Their Commitment to JusticeAugust 8, 2018 at 10:57 AM Like a lot of people, I’ve got the summer bug and, given the choice between a walk outside and a blog post — well, you can figure out what has been winning.
But I’ve got a few posts lined back up the next few weeks. In the interim, I want to share with you one of the most meaningful and amazing speeches I’ve ever heard in person.
It’s from last week when I attended the American Bar Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, where I serve as the State Delegate for Connecticut (and on the ABA Nominat...Tags: Justice, Law, Chicago, Connecticut, Bear, Hiring, Aba, Jamie Mcdonald, Bryan, Stevenson, Laws and Regulations, Discrimination & Harassment, Manager & HR Pro’s Resource Center, Employers, Medal, Equal Justice 44 people like this. Like It’s Not the Damages, It’s the Attorneys’ FeesJuly 16, 2018 at 9:56 AM Typically, in our court system, we operate under the “American Rule” which means that parties have to pay their own attorneys’ fees in cases, regardless of whether they win or lose. (Contrast that with the English Rule which is a “loser pays” system.)
But there is one big exception to the American Rule — and it can be found in lots of employment law cases. In several instances, the governing statute allows the prevailing party (or, in some instances, just the Plaintiff — read “employee”) to c...Tags: Law, Settlement, FLSA, Highlight, Attorneys Fees, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Wage Hour, Discrimination & Harassment, Prevailing Party, Loser Pays, American Rule, Featured Content, Lodestar, District Court of Connecticut Compelled Public Sector Agency Fees Declared Unconstitutional by Supreme CourtJune 27, 2018 at 11:03 AM The U.S. Supreme Court this morning in Janus v. AFSCME (download here) reversed 40 years of labor law precedent and concluded that requiring public employees to pay “agency fees” for labor unions that they don’t want to belong to violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Previously, prior cases have banned forcing public sector employees from joining a union and paying union dues. But a number of states permitted union contracts that required employees to still pay an “agency fee” ...Tags: Supreme Court, Law, Court, Connecticut, First Amendment, Litigation, Public Sector, U S Supreme Court, Abood, Alito, Janus, AFSCME, Deductions, Labor Law & NLRB, Agency Fee, Constitutional 35 people like this. Like Commuting Time Typically Not Compensable — Even in a SupercarJune 25, 2018 at 8:59 AM  Tags: Law, Car, Connecticut, Commuting, Commute, Supercar, Portal, Pagani, Department of Labor, Connecticut Supreme Court, Connecticut Department of Labor, Car Show, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Laws and Regulations, Wage & Hour, Ctdol 103 people like this. Like Suicide and the Workplace – Shining a Light on a Unspoken IssueJune 11, 2018 at 7:29 AM It was the last semester of my senior year in college – right after Spring Break – when I heard the news that would forever shape my views on mental illness.
A friend and fellow editor of the college newspaper I worked for, Steven Ochs jumped to his death from one of the many bridges near his hometown in Pittsburgh, PA.
A group of us ended up driving out there across the fields of Pennsylvania to mourn his passing. It was the first time I was a pallbearer at a funeral and I knew then that was so...Tags: Workplace, Law, Suicide, Mental Health, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Pennsylvania, Violence, Kate Spade, Health Care, Mental Illness, Employment law, Prevention, Wall Street Journal, Steve, Pittsburgh, Steven 25 people like this. Like CHRO Issues Rare Guidance on Hiring and Employing VeteransMay 24, 2018 at 9:46 AM  Tags: Law, Veterans, Connecticut, Employment law, Guidance, Discrimination, Hiring, EEOC, Military Service, TransUnion, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Laws and Regulations, CHRO & EEOC, Discrimination & Harassment, Cchro, Chro 98 people like this. Like After Epic Systems, Employers Face New Considerations on Arbitration Agreements with Class WaiversMay 23, 2018 at 8:21 AM  Tags: Law, California, Connecticut, Sexual Harassment, Class Action, Agreement, Class Actions, Arbitration, Collective, Lewis, U S Supreme Court, FLSA, Epic Systems, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Wage & Hour, Discrimination & Harassment 86 people like this. Like BREAKING: In “Epic” Decision, Supreme Court Approves of Employer Use of Class Action Waivers in Arbitration AgreementsMay 21, 2018 at 10:42 AM In an important 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court this morning held, for the first time, that class or collective action waivers, particularly in wage/hour cases, and contained in arbitration agreements between employers and employees are valid and enforceable.
Because wage and hour class and collective actions are quite costly for employers to defend against, this decision should cause employers in Connecticut (and nationwide) to re-evaluate their employment relationships with employees and ...Tags: Supreme Court, Law, Congress, Court, Connecticut, Faa, National Labor Relations Board, Class Action, Agreement, Class Actions, Board, Arbitration, Lewis, U S Supreme Court, Ginsburg, Lochner 16 people like this. Like |
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