Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently enacted two ordinances – which are being called the “Retail Workers Bill of Rights” – that provide extensive new protections to employees of “formula retail establishments” in San Francisco.  The new ordinances regulate how covered employers manage their workers’ schedules and impose additional financial and administrative burdens on those employers.

In December 2014, the government issued new proposed rules regarding the requirements for providing a summary of benefits and coverage (SBC). Simultaneous with the proposed rules, the government also published an updated SBC template and uniform glossary.

Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws which decriminalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes.  Under those statutory schemes, individuals with qualified medical conditions may become registered cardholders and obtain cannabis for medical purposes, often from state-regulated dispensaries.  These developments present an array of new challenges for employers to navigate.

On December 22, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated a new U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) regulation, scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2015, which eliminated an exemption from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for employees who provide home companionship and live-in domestic services. Home Care Ass'n of Am. v. Weil, No. 14-cv-967 (D.D.C. Dec. 22, 2014). The DOL's new regulation was controversial not only because it reversed years of precedent under the FLSA, but because many questioned whether the DOL had exceeded its authority in promulgating this regulation.

On January 4, 2015, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law the Illinois Secure Choice Savings Program Act, which will require private sector employers to make automatic payroll deductions, and place the deductions into a state-run savings plan for the benefit of employees.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (“DEO”) announced that the state’s minimum wage of $7.93/hour will be increased to $8.05/hour beginning January 1, 2015.  The minimum wage for tipped employees will correspondingly increase from $4.91/hour to $5.03/hour, with the employer’s maximum tip credit remaining at $3.02/hour.  The DEO has also issued an updated “Notice to Employees” poster which Florida employers are required to post in addition to the federal minimum wage poster as of January 1, 2015.

Minimum wage increases have experienced much activity in ...

As is often the case, the coming new year brings a slate of new requirements for California employers to grapple with. Employers should have these developments on their radar to ensure compliance in 2015 and beyond.

The National Labor Relations Board announced its Final Rule governing union representation case procedures, claiming that such Rule aims to “remove unnecessary barriers to the fair and expeditious resolution of representation questions.”  Specifically, the Rule claims to “streamline Board procedures, increase transparency and uniformity across regions, eliminate or reduce unnecessary litigation, duplication and delay, and update the Board’s rules on documents and communications in light of modern communications technology.”

In Purple Communications, Inc., a divided National Labor Relations Board held that employees have the right to use their employers’ email systems for statutorily protected communications, including self-organization and other terms and conditions of employment, during non-working time.  In making this determination, the Board reversed its divided 2007 decision in Register Guard, which held that employees have no statutory right to use their employer’s email systems for Section 7 purposes.

On December 9, 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. v. Busk that the time spent waiting to undergo and undergoing security screenings is not compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).  U.S. Supreme Court, No. 13-433.  The case involved hourly temporary staffing-agency warehouse workers who retrieved products from warehouse shelves and packaged the products for delivery to Amazon.com customers.  Before leaving the warehouse each day, workers were required to undergo a security screening involving the removal of wallets, keys, and belts from their persons and passing through metal detectors.