Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives

Business and labor groups in California have reached a tentative legislative deal to preserve—but reform—the State’s much criticized law known formally as the California Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004, Cal. Lab. Code § 2698, et seq. (“PAGA”).  Governor Gavin Newsom announced the deal on Tuesday.

We are pleased to announce that the Labor and Employment Team at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP has been recognized as practice leaders in Immigration and Labor and Employment by the 2024 Legal 500 US Guide. Thirteen individual lawyers on HuntonAK’s Labor and Employment and Immigration Team also were acknowledged.

On May 31, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (the “D.C. Circuit”) partially overturned a decision issued by the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) in Absolute Healthcare d/b/a Curaleaf Arizona v. National Labor Relations Board.

On June 13, 2024, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Starbucks v. McKinney and, in doing so, clarified the standard applicable to the National Labor Relations Board’s (the “Board”) requests for preliminary injunctions under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”).

Congratulations to HuntonAK’s Labor and Employment, Immigration, and OSHA Practices, along with our 13 attorneys for their Chambers USA 2024 rankings!

This past week, the EEOC filed suit against 15 different employers located across 11 different states. There was one common theme in each action: an employer’s failure to complete EEO-1 Component 1 reports for both 2021 and 2022. By filing these lawsuits, the EEOC is requesting courts to order these employers to fulfill their requirement of providing their company’s workforce demographic data. These suits were filed just ahead of the deadline for employers to file their EEO-1 Component 1 report reflecting data from the 2023 calendar year, which is quickly approaching on June 4, 2024.

Many employers today feel pressured to take formal stances on political topics which could impinge on protected categories, such as student protests, abortion access, and Black Lives Matter. Even employers that decline these invitations must effectively manage conflicts between employees over topics such as Israel and Palestine, Russia and Ukraine, or gender-based, religious, or racial implications of opposing political positions, particularly those tied to the upcoming election.

California law requires employers to provide employees written wage statements listing gross and net wages earned, hourly pay rates, hours worked, and other employment-related information. (Lab. Code, § 226.) If a claimant demonstrates that an employer has failed to comply with this requirement, the claimant is entitled to an injunction compelling compliance and an award of costs and reasonable attorney’s fees. (Id., subd. (h).)

Hunton Andrews Kurth labor and employment partner Robert Dumbacher has been selected to Leadership Atlanta’s Class of 2025. 

In two cases filed in federal courts, workers at retail fast-food chains McDonald’s and Wendy’s are taking advantage of the new protections granted them by the 2022 Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (PUMP Act).