In recent years there has been a flurry of new laws regulating Colorado workplaces, large and small. This summary covers recent laws relating to: Paid leave Termination notice requirements Non-competition agreements Pay transparency PAID LEAVE REQUIREMENTS Effective January 1, 2021, the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (“HFWA”) requires Colorado employers to provide two …read more »
End-of-Year Checklist: Update Your EEO Poster
There is one more thing that most employers need to add to their end-of-year checklist. In October 2022, the EEOC updated and replaced its familiar “EEO is the Law” poster. The new poster, entitled “Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal,” was finalized on October 20, 2022 and is the operative EEO posting starting immediately. …read more »
Fourth Circuit Rules that Certain Trans People Are Protected by the ADA
The Americans with Disabilities Act’s definition of “disability” expressly excludes “gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments.” Based on this exclusion, courts historically have held that an employee is not entitled to the protections of the ADA based on status as a transgender person. Recently, in Williams v. Kincaid, the U.S. Court of Appeals …read more »
Maintaining the Attorney-Client Privilege Over Pay Equity Analyses
More and more of our clients are conducting workforce pay equity analyses. The reasons vary. Sometimes the analysis has been requested by the company’s Board of Directors or executive leadership to assess whether the company is meeting internal or external benchmarks. Sometimes the analysis is performed because the company is investigating a perceived or actual …read more »
To Pay or Not to Pay: When are Bonuses Earned and Payable?
Employers often offer bonuses that are conditional on the employee’s fulfillment of certain requirements, including continued employment on the payout date. When an employee fails to fulfill the required condition, the employer may want the employee to forfeit the right to any portion of the bonus. Whether an employer can require employees to forfeit their …read more »
“Ban the Box” is in Effect: What Federal Contractors Need to Know About the Fair Chance Act
In December 2021, new regulations went into place for federal contractors under the federal Fair Chance Act (“FCA”). The FCA prohibits covered contractors, either verbally or through a written background check request, from seeking “criminal history record information” from applicants for positions related to work related to a federal contract until after a conditional employment …read more »
Don’t Forget About the Obligations Surrounding Virtual I-9 Verification
On April 25, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced a six-month extension until October 31, 2022, of the policy allowing remote or virtual verification of the documentation required for a Form I-9 when an employee is working remotely. And while many employers relied heavily on this …read more »
Three Things to Remember When Drafting Commissions Agreements
The Texas Supreme Court recently issued a notable decision construing an employer’s obligation to pay pro-rata commissions to a terminating employee when the underlying agreement failed to specify certain criteria for payment. Perthuis v. Baylor Miraca Genetics Labs., LLC, 2022 WL 1592587 (Tex. May 20, 2022). The Perthuis case is a good reminder of several …read more »
Is Your Arbitration Agreement Up to Date?
There has been a lot of movement in the legal landscape surrounding arbitration recently, and I mean a lot. These are not typically headline grabbing cases or laws, but for employers with arbitration agreements and dispute resolution programs in place, they signal the importance of regularly reviewing and updating these documents. Alternatively, for employers who …read more »
Efforts to Outlaw Race-Based Hair Discrimination Gain Traction: What Employers Need to Know about the CROWN Act
In 2010, Catastrophe Management Solutions hired Chastity Jones. Jones, a black woman, was fired after she refused to cut her dreadlocks to comply with CMS’s employee grooming standards. The EEOC sued, arguing that Jones’s dismissal amounted to race discrimination. But the courts disagreed, finding Jones’s dreadlocks were not a fixed (i.e., immutable) trait constituting “race” …read more »