Showing 5 posts from December 2015.

Seventh Circuit Reiterates Standard for Establishing Substantial Limitation on the Ability to Work

It goes without saying that an employee cannot prevail on a disability discrimination claim unless he is actually disabled. In the context of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), this means that he must show that a disability “substantially limits” one or more of his “major life activities.”  Predictably, plaintiffs often allege that the “major life activity” that their disability has impacted is the activity of “working." Thus, an important question for employers is this: when does a disability actually limit an employee’s ability to work? More ›

New Jersey's Department of Labor Issues New Rules Regarding "Ban the Box"

On December 7, 2015, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (the “NJDOL”) promulgated a set of regulations to enforce and more specifically define the restrictions contained in the State's "Opportunity to Compete Act."  Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey signed the Act on August 11, 2014, following the lead of a handful of other states by requiring employers to remove criminal-convictions questions from job applications and defer background inquiries until the conclusion of the “initial application process”.  While the Act went into effect on March 1, 2015, the NJDOL's new rules are the first issued.  Among other important aspects, the NJDOLs new regulations define a first interview as any "live, direct contact” between the employer and applicant, whether by telephone, video conferencing, or in person. More ›

Tales of the FLSA: The case of the Complaining Manager

What can you do when your boss won't listen to you, the Manager/Director of Human Resources?

"Keep complaining," the Ninth Circuit said (not in those words). More ›

New IRS Initiative Highlights Trust Fund Tax Compliance Issues

The IRS has begun a new initiative focused on payroll tax compliance for employers, and specifically the timely deposit of withheld payroll and income taxes. Those taxes, which are withheld from an employee's paycheck and then turned over to the IRS by employers, are known as "trust fund" taxes. Employers who fail to timely submit their trust fund taxes may be subject to civil or criminal liability, as well as personal liability for those individuals who are responsible for collecting and depositing the trust fund taxes. More ›

The Threshold is Coming! The Threshold is Coming!...eventually: Final OT Exemption Rules Coming in July 2016

This blog has previously discussed the July 2015 proposed regulatory changes issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) that seek to significantly expand overtime eligibility under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by more than doubling the salary threshold for this exemption from the current $455 a week to $970 a week. For the first time, the proposal also seeks to index the salary threshold in order to keep up with inflation, although the DOL sought input regarding the precise indexing mechanism. More ›