Labor & Employment Law Update

The average life expectancy in the U.S. has declined for three consecutive years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) links that decline to three factors: the rise in drug overdoses, an increase in liver disease, and a rise in suicide rates. More than 2 million Americans from all walks of life suffer from an opioid use disorder (OUD), and about two-thirds of those people are in the workforce. This has a tremendous financial impact on employers:  In 2016, U.S. large employers covered $2.6 billion on treatment for OUD and overdose, up from $0.3 billion in 2004.  

OUD ...

This month, two federal circuit court of appeals reversed district courts’ grants of summary judgment in cases filed under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). With these twin cases, it seems as good of a time as any to provide a brief refresher on employee rights and employer obligations regarding those in military service. 

On December 3, 2019, the Tenth Circuit reversed a decision by the U.S. District Court of Kansas in Greer v. City of Wichita, which dismissed an USERRA claim alleging that a city museum denied an employee an interview for a ...

On December 13, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued notice of new regulations designed to materially change what is commonly referred to as the “Quickie Election” Rule. The new regulations, set to take effect on April 16, 2020, will materially help employers combat labor unions in the private sector by primarily providing more time to react to and educate the workforce on the “Good, Bad & Ugly” of what union representation actually means to workers.  

As a brief reminder… the “Quickie Election” Rule is a set of unprecedented regulations that the Obama ...

After the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018, U.S. academic institutions continue to grapple with compliance issues. Institutions must address areas where there is exposure to risk and train their employees to minimize that exposure.

One area of risk is the flow of data. Who on campus is the gatekeeper handling the data? Most universities will have a Data Protection Officer (DPO) as required by Article 37 of the GDPR. Other campus GDPR actors may include University Counsel, Information Technology Officers, Information Security ...