Retail Labor and Employment Law

Retail Labor and Employment Law

News, Updates, and Insights for Retail Employers

Monthly Archives: January 2012

Act Now Advisory: U.S. Supreme Court Holds Ministerial Exception Is Defense to Employment Discrimination Claims

 

 

by Allen B. Roberts, Amy J. Traub, and Christina J. Fletcher

 

Religious organizations and those they employ have anticipated guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court’s first opinion addressing the ministerial exception in the employment discrimination context. With its January 11, 2012, decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & Sch. v. EEOC, U.S., No. 10-553, the Court clarified that the First Amendment’s Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses bar the government from interfering with the “decision of a religious group to fire one of its ministers.” The Court recognized the “interest of religious groups in choosing who will … Continue Reading

Epstein Becker Green Is Pleased to Announce a New Blog Focused on Health Employment and Labor Law

The Employer Defense Law Blog welcomes a new sibling!  The Health Employment and Labor (HEAL) blog will include updates about timely issues related to labor and employment issues that affect health care and life sciences companies.

The HEAL blog is an idea that stems from the Epstein Becker Green’s Health Employment and Labor Group, which combines the strengths of the Firm’s two founding national practices – Health Care and Life Sciences and Labor and Employment. EBG attorneys have a deep knowledge of both the labor and employment field and wanted to create a blog that would quickly inform and educate … Continue Reading

When is a Prevailing Wage Not Prevailing?

by Donald S. Krueger & D. Martin Stanberry

New York state courts appear primed to resolve important questions about competitive bidding for public contracts in New York City and the ability of contractors to successfully challenge city officials’ actions that directly affect the wage and benefit components of their bids.

Under New York law, a contractor awarded a public contract by the state or a municipality must pay the “prevailing rate” for wages and fringe benefits to their workers performing services under that contract. These prevailing rates are established by the fiscal officer of the municipality awarding the contract.  In … Continue Reading

New Jersey Adopts Statutory Trade Secret Protections

by James P. Flynn

On Monday, January 9, 2012, Governor Chris Christie signed into the law the New Jersey Trade Secrets Act (NJTSA), the Garden State’s version of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA).  New Jersey, thus, becomes the forty-seventh state to adopt some form of UTSA.  While the New Jersey Act will promote some level of uniformity in the approach to trade secrets issues, New Jersey specific changes to the uniform act promise that this statute will build upon, rather than depart from, New Jersey’s common law tradition of protection of trade secrets and other valuable business information.

For … Continue Reading

Employment Law Trends that Will Affect Financial Companies in 2012

by John F. Fullerton III

SS_financial_system_piigs_us.jpgIt seems likely that the struggling economy will continue to be a primary driver of labor and employment law issues in 2012, particularly in the financial services industry. While there are many important legal issues that will arise in this environment, employers in the financial sector should consider five issues as potential hot button topics for the coming year:

  • Continuing, but targeted, reductions-in-force
  • Independent contractor misclassification
  • Overtime exemption misclassification
  • Revolving door restrictions on hiring government employees
  • Restrictions on the use of credit reports in hiring

To read more, click here.… Continue Reading

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