Paternity leave changes on the horizon in the UK
Employment Law Watch
by David Ashmore and Alison Heaton
1w ago
Paternity leave has not been forgotten in the swathe of family related legislative changes taking effect in April 2024. However, anyone hoping for significant changes will be disappointed. The changes are limited to improving flexibility for eligible employees wanting to take the existing right to two weeks of statutory paternity leave. There is no increase in the leave entitlement, or to the level of paternity pay. The changes introduce the following flexibility: Allowing eligible employees to take their two weeks of statutory paternity leave in non-consecutive weeks (at present it must be t ..read more
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Virginia governor vetoes “salary history ban” statute legislation
Employment Law Watch
by Betty S.W. Graumlich and Samantha Sedivy
1w ago
On March 14, 2024, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed identical bills passed by the Virginia legislature barring employers from asking about a job applicant’s salary history and requiring pay information to be included in job listings. Senate Bill 370 and House Bill 990, introduced by Senator Jennifer Boysko (D) and Delegate Michelle Maldonado (D), respectively, add a new “salary history ban” statute to the Chapter of the Virginia Code that provides protections for employees. The legislation passed along party lines, with support from Democratic majorities in both the House and the Se ..read more
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Texas judge vacates NLRB’s new joint employer rule
Employment Law Watch
by Emily Harbison and Heather Raun
1w ago
In October 2023, the National Labor Relations Board issued a final rule that lowered the standard for companies to qualify as joint employers. You can read more about the rule here. On March 8, 2024, a federal judge in Texas struck down the final rule. U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker granted summary judgment in favor of the business coalition that challenged the 2023 rule. In short, the 2023 rule established a two-step test which requires: (1) the entity qualify as a common-law employer of the workers in question, and if so (2) the entity have control over one or more essential terms an ..read more
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Employers take notice: Union representation petitions are spiking in 2024
Employment Law Watch
by James A. Holt and Brianna Schmid
2w ago
Employers in all industries should take notice that efforts to unionize appear to be spiking in 2024.  Indeed, data made available by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) shows that, in just the first few months of the current fiscal year, the number of union representation cases, or so-call “R-cases,” filed with the NLRB is on a meteoric rise – indicating that recent trends with respect to union organization efforts may be amplifying. This was predicted in our prior article about the NLRB’s decision in Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC, which established a new framework for ..read more
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Developments with the UK’s ‘fire and rehire’ clampdown: what’s next?
Employment Law Watch
by David Ashmore and Alison Heaton
3w ago
The practice of fire and rehire has hit the headlines and been the topic of political debate in recent years. While the current UK government has rejected calls to outlaw entirely the practice, in early 2022 it committed to introducing a statutory code of practice to set out expected standards of behaviour and best practice. Our blog from 13 February 2023 considered the draft code as the consultation was launched. We now provide an update on the content of the new Code and explores some challenges and tips for employers faced with navigating a change of terms and conditions once the Code comes ..read more
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Government shutdown looming: How government agencies that enforce labor and employment laws could be impacted
Employment Law Watch
by Amanda Brown
3w ago
Governmental entities play a vital role in upholding federal labor and employment regulations and would face significant disruption in the event of a government shutdown. In September, we provided a brief review on how a shutdown would affect the government agencies that enforce federal labor and employment laws — the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); the Department of Labor (DOL); and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). If a government shutdown occurs later this week, the agencies’ contingency plans, discussed in the September 2023 post, will take effect and bot ..read more
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Flexible working reform in the UK – Are you ready for April?
Employment Law Watch
by David Ashmore and Alison Heaton
1M ago
After years of talk about improving the legal framework to promote more flexibility in the modern working environment, the UK is now on the cusp of changes to its statutory flexible working regime taking effect. Our blog post from August 2023 provides a background to reform and the changes as initially announced. We now provide an update on what is changing and when, and provide our top tips for employers preparing for and managing flexible working requests beginning in April 2024. What are the current flexible working rules in the UK? Under current statutory rules, employees with 26 weeks of ..read more
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Supreme Court eases employees’ burden to establish SOX retaliation claims and possibly other whistleblower claims
Employment Law Watch
by Amanda Brown and Heather Raun
1M ago
On February 8, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court issued Murray v. UBS Securities LLC, No. 22-660, which addressed the proper framework for establishing a whistleblower claim under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). Under SOX, an employee who works for a covered company is protected from retaliation if they disclose information that the employee reasonably believes shows a violation of federal securities law, SEC rules, or any federal law related to fraud against shareholders. In Murray, the Court held that an employee is not required to prove that their employer acted with animus when it engaged ..read more
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Equal pay – the end of individual salary negotiations in Germany?
Employment Law Watch
by Jan Weißgerber and Vincent Magotsch
1M ago
The principle of equal pay for equal work has been a keystone in German as well as European law for many years, and it is no secret that the reality in Germany, in particular with regards to the pay gap between men and women, is very different. The Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt) has been tracking the difference in pay between women and men in Germany since 2006. For 2023, they report that the average gross hourly earnings of women (EUR 20.84) were EUR 4.46 lower than those of men (EUR 25.30), resulting in an average of 18% less earnings per hour (which is the so called “u ..read more
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UK redundancy protection – significant changes from April 2024
Employment Law Watch
by David Ashmore and Alison Heaton
1M ago
Employers embarking on redundancy or restructuring exercises need to be aware of significant changes from 6 April 2024 to UK redundancy rules which give priority protection to employees on maternity, adoption and shared parental leave (SPL). The changes from 6 April mean that the period of priority protection will extend to 18 months following the end of leave and will also apply to pregnant employees from the day they notify their employer of their pregnancy. This is important because a failure to give priority protection can result in a redundancy dismissal being both automatically unfair an ..read more
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