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Snell & Wilmer’s Labor and Employment Law Blog provides breaking news and updates on legal issues facing employers.

Winter 2020 Under Construction Newsletter – Out Now!

The winter edition of Snell & Wilmer’s Under Construction newsletter is out now! This issue addresses: Employees’ Use of Social Media to Complain About Working; Tips for Mediation of the Toughest Construction Disputes; Overview of the ConsensusDocs® 900 Public-Private Partnership (P3) Agreement and General Conditions; The Registrar of Contractors and the Residential Contractors’ Recovery Fund: […]

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New Year, New Restrictions on Non-Compete Agreements

States across the country continue to enact legislation limiting the use of non-compete agreements. The most notable trend is the applicability (or, rather, non-applicability) of non-competition agreements to low-wage earners.  As the new year begins, and many of these laws take effect, now is a great time to check restrictive covenant agreements to ensure compliance. […]

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SP
Former Associate

The DOL Starts 2020 With a Bevy of Opinion Letters

Not sitting on its laurels, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has already issued three new opinion letters to begin the year.  Two deal with issues under the FLSA and a third addresses issues under the FMLA. Opinion letter number one provides guidance as to the nature of the calculation of the regular rate of […]

CJ

New CROWN Laws: Natural Hair and Protective Hairstyles in the Workplace

With the start of the new year, California’s new law prohibiting hair discrimination has taken effect. Although California was the first state to prohibit discrimination on the basis of hair, similar legislation is appearing across the United States. New York and New Jersey have since joined California to prohibit hair discrimination, with New York City and Montgomery […]

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RB
Former Associate

New Mexico Employment Law 2019 Review

It’s been a busy year for the New Mexico legislature – especially in the employment space. Check out Benjamin Nucci and Walker Crowson’s Legal Alert here taking a look at six employment bills impacting New Mexico employers.

Deferral By The NLRB To Grievance/Arbitration Procedures

Overruling 2014 precedent, see Babcock & Wilcox Construction, 361 NLRB 1127 (2014), the National Labor Relations Board (Board), last week in UPS, Inc. 369 NLRB No. 1 (Dec. 23, 2019), returned to the standard that applied from 1984 to 2014 for deferral of alleged unlawful discharges and/or disciplinary action against employees to contractual grievance/arbitration procedures. See Spielberg Mfg.Co., 112 […]

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JM
Of Counsel

EEOC Changes Policy on Mandatory Arbitration

This past week, the EEOC withdrew its 1997 policy statement regarding mandatory binding arbitration agreements. In that policy statement, the EEOC took the position that the use of mandatory binding arbitration agreements as a condition of employment were contrary to the fundamental principles of the federal anti-discrimination statutes, including the right to pursue discrimination claims […]

BH
Of Counsel

Employers May Discontinue Checkoff of Union Dues at Expiration of Union Contract

In a December 16, 2019 decision, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) held that employers’ statutory obligation to checkoff union dues pursuant to their union contracts ends when said contracts expire. Overruling relatively recent precedent, the Board based its decision on the principle that there is no independent statutory obligation to check off and remit dues […]

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JM
Of Counsel

U.S. Department of Labor Issues New Rule Clarifying Exclusions from Overtime Calculation

On December 12, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) finalized a new rule that lets employers leave several perks, including tuition benefits, paid leave cash-outs, and some bonuses, out of the formula used to calculate employees’ overtime pay. According to the DOL’s press release, this new rule “marks the first significant update to the regulations […]

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