Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives

Employers across the Country are relying on Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes (2011) 131 S.Ct. 2541 to fight class certification or to file decertification motions.  Many are finding success, and for good reason.  Dukes is a major obstacle to class certification.  However, in a recent California appeals decision, Williams v. Superior Court (Allstate Insurance Company), December 6, 2013, Second District, Div. Eight, 2013 S.O.S. B244043, the appellate court found that the trial court abused its discretion when it decertified a class based on Dukes.  The trial court found that Dukes

Employers' use of criminal background checks in the hiring process is creating growing exposure to liability on several fronts.

Please join us for a complimentary webinar on this topic:

Thursday, January 16, 2014

10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. PT
(1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. ET)

Register Now

On October 31, 2013, the Internal Revenue Service issued Notice 2013-71, which modifies the “use or lose” rule for flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and permits employers to amend their section 125 “cafeteria” plans to allow employees to carry over up to $500 in unused FSA contributions to the next plan year.

The government shutdown may have ended six weeks ago, but its impact may be felt for months to come.  The Office of Management and Budget recently released a report entitled “Impacts and Costs of the October 2013 Federal Government Shutdown,” which details the costs of the government shutdown and the impact it had on government workers, which in turn impacts the private sector workplace as well.

The “ban the box” movement continues to sweep through state legislatures.  These laws, which vary in terms of scope and detail, generally prohibit employers from requesting on applications information about applicants’ criminal histories.  Recent legislation in two states applies “ban the box” prohibitions to private employers in the state.

More than three years after first announcing that it was considering issuing regulations applying the Americans with Disabilities Act to websites, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) appears on the verge of announcing its proposed rules for website accessibility. While the DOJ originally stated that it anticipated issuing its Title II website accessibility rules for websites operated by state and local governments by November 2013, it now expects to issue these rules by the end of the year. These proposed regulations will “expressly address the obligations of public entities to ...

On Wednesday the Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases involving religious objections made by corporations to a provision of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “Affordable Care Act”), which requires employers to provide health insurance for employees that covers contraceptives.  The central issue in both cases is whether a secular for-profit corporation may be exempt from complying with the contraception mandate under the Constitution because of the owner’s religious views.

President Obama is not only focused on health care these days.  He is also focused on helping companies keep employees, rather than lay them off, during a tough economic time.  The federal government will actually supplement wages, in certain circumstances, to stop layoffs. In February of 2012, President Barack Obama signed into law the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012.  The chief focus of the Act was extending tax cuts for the middle class.  However, the Act also made substantial revisions to the unemployment insurance system.  One of the key revisions was to provide substantial federal funding for the expansion of state short-time compensation (“STC”) programs, which are sometimes referred to as “work sharing” programs.

The EEOC recently settled a national origin discrimination case involving a “restrictive language policy” or “English-only rule.”  EEOC v. Mesa Systems, Inc., 2:11-cv-01201 (D. Utah 2013).  The employer agreed to pay $450,000.00 and to provide a variety of injunctive relief, including training, policy revisions, apologies, notice postings, and reporting to the EEOC.  The EEOC’s Strategic Enforcement Plan made it a priority to protect the most “vulnerable workers,” and Commissioner Jacqueline Berrien said the settlement is an important demonstration of a “renewed commitment” to that goal.  And, indeed: this settlement is the latest in a decade-long line of EEOC enforcement actions based on English-only rules.  See, e.g.: $2.44 million settlement with University of Incarnate Word (2001); $700,000 settlement with Premier Operator Services, Inc. (2000).

With the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act (“ADAAA”) and its expansion of the definition of “disability,” some would argue that the focus should no longer be on whether someone meets the definition of a “disability.” The presumption being that it is much easier now to prove someone is “disabled” under the law. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has recently issued a ruling contracting this assumption.