The Federal Cabinet has introduced a draft bill to make it easier for employees to establish and elect works councils and to facilitate the works councils’ work in an increasingly digitalized work environment, the “Betriebsrätemodernisierungsgesetz“. Less Red Tape and More Protection The draft bill intends to facilitate the establishment of works councils, in particular in smaller companies and to strengthen the protection of the employees involved. To justify the need of the draft bill, the Federal Cabinet relies on statistics according to which only 9 % of the operations in western Germany w ..read more

For as long as the threat of infection from COVID-19 remains, businesses will have to maintain a safe and healthy workplace to an increased degree. In order to clarify and sort out the large number of recommendations, the German government has updated the SARS-CoV-2 Occupational Health and Safety Standard for employers from April 2020 of which we had highlighted the key points here. It has also updated the SARS-CoV-2- Occupational Health and Safety Rule which serves as concretization of the Health and Safety Standard. General Employer Health and Safety Duties The Health and Safety Rule was joi ..read more

Earlier this month, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) officially announced that the H-1B electronic registration period for FY2022 will be open from March 9 through March 25, 2021. During this period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to submit their registrations for potential H-1B candidates. Due to the limited number of U.S. employment visa options available to foreign nationals, the H-1B is one of the most coveted ways an individual can receive permission to temporarily work and live in the U.S. Notably, H-1Bs can be granted to foreign nationals who ..read more

On 19 January 2021, the German Chancellor and Federal Prime Ministers passed a new resolution on further measures to combat the Corona pandemic. The Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs implemented this resolution in a new ordinance, the Corona-ArbSchV, which will enter into force on Wednesday, January 27, 2021 and will initially apply for a limited period until March 15, 2021. The Key Points of the New Corona-ArbSchV at a Glance: Employers are generally obliged to offer working from home (in Germany commonly referred to as “home office”); If rooms have to be used by several employees ..read more

The legal framework for regular work in the mobile office is currently still lacking in Germany—the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs wants to close this gap. The German government coalition parties have always expressed their intention to support mobile work in Germany. It seems that these endeavours are picking up pace slowly but surely. In the first step, the minister of labor and social affairs had issued a draft bill in October 2020 containing an employee entitlement to work remotely for 24 days per year. This draft has been widely criticized by employers’ associations and lega ..read more

On January 13, 2021, prominent whistleblower attorney and a principal architect of the Dodd-Frank Act whistleblower program, Jordan A. Thomas, filed a complaint against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) seeking a declaratory judgment that certain provisions of the SEC’s recent whistleblower program amendments are invalid and cannot be enforced.  Specifically, the complaint challenges the SEC’s “clarification” of its authority to limit the size and number of certain whistleblower awards. Under Dodd-Frank, the Commission pays a monetary award to a whistlebl ..read more

As the initial doses of the first approved COVID-19 vaccines are being administered across the United States, the EEOC has issued its initial guidance on vaccinations as part of its “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws” publication. The EEOC’s latest FAQ-style guidance discusses a number of issues that employers need to consider assuming that they are requiring the vaccine.  Some of the key issues that the EEOC opined on include: Vaccine or pre-vaccine questions as a “medical examination” under the Americans With Disabilities Act ..read more

Many employers now have employees who have shifted from working in the employer’s office to working remotely from home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation where an employer’s office is located in one state and the employee now works from home in a different state raises several state tax implications, including creating tax nexus between an employer and a state (which would subject the employer to the state’s income and sales tax regimes) and requiring an employer to withhold state income taxes from compensation paid to such employee. Unfortunately, the states have not adopted ..read more

The German Federal Labor Court decided in an eagerly awaited ruling that crowdworkers or microtaskers can be classified as employees under German employment law. The decision will likely have significant impacts for the so-called gig economy. Although the ruling will not render the business model entirely impossible, platform operators will have to review and possibly reconsider their processes. Regional Labor Court Denied Employee Status In the pre-instance ruling, the Regional Labor Court Munich considered the crowdworker to be self-employed. The crowdworker earned approximately EUR 1,800 pe ..read more

With the Georgia Senate race and control of the Senate hanging in the balance, a Biden Administration’s ability to enact new employment law legislation change is questionable.  However, with the stroke of a pen, a Biden Administration can make significant changes through Executive Order.  In this post, we attempt to identify several areas where rule by Executive Order may come. First up, the Fair Pay and Safe Workforces (“FPSW”) initiative (commonly known in the contractor community as the “Blacklisting” Executive Order).  In 2017, President Trump revoked this initiative, which ..read more