Insights

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Category: Affirmative Action and Diversity

State Democratic AGs Counter GOP AGs Letter Warning Companies That DEI Practices Will Be Scrutinized

A group of 21 Democratic State Attorneys General have sent a letter to Fortune 100 companies countering the letter sent to the same group recently by 13 Republican AGs warning the companies that their DEI practices must not discriminate on the basis of race. The dueling letters are the latest sign that DEI practices are under the spotlight following the...
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Category: FLSA

Federal Court Once Again Rejects Restaurant Industry’s Challenge to Revised Tip Credit Rule

For the second time, a federal trial court in Texas has rejected an attempt by the restaurant industry to block enforcement of revised tip credit regulations issued by the Biden Administration’s Labor Department. The trial court’s latest ruling in Restaurant Law Center v. DOL, W.D. Tex. (July 6, 2023), comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed...
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Category: Policies and Practices

Colorado Amends Its Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (EPEWA), Effective 1/1/24

Amendments to Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (EPEWA), signed into law in June, are a mixed bag for covered employers. The EPEWA is the 2019 law that requires covered employers to include pay ranges in job postings for all jobs that could be performed in Colorado and to notify all employees about all promotional opportunities. The amended law, which will...
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Category: Disability, Accommodations, and Leaves

New DOL Opinion Letter Addresses How Holiday Impacts Weekly Leave Entitlement

The Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a rare opinion letter under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) addressing the calculation of leave used by an employee who takes less than a full week of FMLA leave during a week that includes a holiday. DOL’s letter opines that if an employee takes less than a full week of FMLA...
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Category: EEO-1

EEOC Confirms Delay in 2022 EEO-1 Filing Season Until Fall of 2023

The 2022 Component 1 Employer Information (EEO-1) reporting season will not begin until sometime this fall, according to an announcement on the website of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The annual EEO-1 filing season normally occurs during the second quarter, but the EEOC is delaying it while it awaits approval from the White House Office of Management and Budget...
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Category: Affirmative Action and Diversity

13 GOP State AGs Send Letter to Fortune 100 With Warning That DEI Practices Will Be Scrutinized

Seizing on the Supreme Court’s recent decision barring the consideration of race in college admissions, the Republican Attorneys General of 13 states have signed a letter notifying Fortune 100 companies that their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices are under scrutiny for potential race discrimination. Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), our affiliated nonprofit membership association, can read more here.
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Category: Discrimination and Harassment

Senate Confirms Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Kalpana Kotagal to EEOC, Giving Democrats Long-Awaited Majority

The Senate confirmed plaintiffs’ lawyer Kalpana Kotagal to a vacant seat on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission) last week, giving it a Democratic majority on the five-member Commission for the first time since January 2019. Ms. Kotagal’s term will end on July 1, 2027. With a 3 to 2 Democratic majority for the first time during the...
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Category: Labor Relations

NLRB Overrules Trump-Era Independent Contractor Test, Boosting a Likely Finding of Employee Status

The Biden-era National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) has issued a ruling that will make it far more likely that a worker will be considered an employee for purposes of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or Act). In Atlanta Opera, 372 NLRB No. 95 (2023), the Board’s Democratic majority overruled a Trump-era Board precedent that provided practical guidance...
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Category: Discrimination and Harassment

Ninth Circuit Says Offensive Rap Music at Work Can Give Rise to Valid Sex Discrimination Claim

Sexually derogatory music blasted constantly throughout a workplace can give rise to a sex discrimination claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, even if the music is offensive to both female and male employees, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled June 7, 2023. In reversing a trial court’s grant of summary judgment...
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Category: Agency Enforcement

OFCCP’s Administrative Litigation Activity Remains Fairly Low

More than two years into the Biden Administration, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) still hasn’t shown the level of formal enforcement activity from that we anticipated from the agency during the Biden Administration. Last October, the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), our affiliated nonprofit membership association, reported that the Biden Labor Department’s OFCCP had filed two formal...

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