Blogs

Business and Financial Services

House Amendments to Families First Coronavirus Act – Mixed Bag for Employee Leave Benefits

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (the “Act”) with bi-partisan support in the wee hours of the morning on Friday, March 14, 2020. The Act provided for expanded FMLA benefits (the “FMLA Expansion Act”), for reasons related to government quarantine orders, employee exposure to the coronavirus, and care of family members who are affected by the coronavirus or resulting school or daycare closures. The Act also provided both full- and part-time…

March 18, 2020

Business and Financial Services

Families First Coronavirus Response Act

Early on Saturday (March 14, 2020) morning, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation it dubbed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (the “Act”), designed to provide significant relief to a wide swath of workers across the country, in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Of particular note, the Act would provide the vast majority of U.S. workers with up to twelve weeks of FMLA leave (the “FMLA Expansion Act”) and as much as two weeks of paid sick leave (the “Paid…

March 16, 2020

Employment Law

Marijuana & the Workplace

As state laws and public opinion regarding marijuana continue to evolve, employers are confronting a variety of uncertainties about their drug policies. This article discusses marijuana laws and the ramifications of such laws for employers in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. When and where is marijuana use legal? As of February 2020, 32…

February 21, 2020

Employment Law

New Virginia Law Requires Employer Disclosure of Requested Personnel Records

A quick heads up for those Virginia employers whose policy has been to deny employees access to or copies of their employment records. As of July 1, 2019, Virginia law now requires employers to “furnish a copy of all records or papers retained by the employer in any format” that reflect the following information about the employee: Dates of employment with the employer; Wage or salary history during the employment; Job description and job title during employment; and Injuries sustained by the…

October 3, 2019

Employment Law

EEOC Report: Workplace Sexual Harassment Complaints are Up

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released its discrimination enforcement and litigation statistics for its fiscal year ending September 20, 2018. The report provides employers with a detailed breakdown of the 76,418 charges of workplace discrimination the EEOC received in FY 2018. The numbers are consistent with anecdotal reports in the mainstream media of a sharp increase in sexual harassment activity since the New York Times and The New Yorker first published…

May 10, 2019

Employment Law

When Can I Deduct from the Pay of an Exempt Employee?

To be exempt from the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), an employee must perform certain job duties and be paid on a “salary basis,” meaning that the employee receives a set salary each week, regardless of the number of days or hours worked, with limited exceptions. Under the…

April 23, 2019

Employment Law

FMLA Delay? No Way.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued an opinion letter on March 15, 2019 that answered the question of “whether an employer may delay designating paid leave as Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave or expand their FMLA leave beyond the statutory 12-week entitlement.” The DOL’s answer in short: No way. Guidance from the…

March 22, 2019

Employment Law

5 Takeaways from DOL’s Proposal to Change FLSA Overtime Rules

On March 7, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued proposed rules that would update the salary threshold for the Fair Labor Standard Act’s (FLSA) so-called “white collar” or “EAP” exemptions from overtime. The importance of this issue for employers is tied to the fact that an employee must be paid on a salary…

March 11, 2019

Employment Law

Fourth Circuit Concludes: False Rumor that Female Employee Slept with Her Male Boss to Obtain a Promotion Can Support a Claim of Sexual Harassment

In a decision that pushes the boundaries of past decisions defining hostile work environment sexual harassment, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Parker v. Reema Consulting Services, Inc. , concluded that “a false rumor that a female employee slept with her male boss to obtain a promotion . . .” can give rise to employer liability under Title VII for discrimination ‘because of sex.’ When a supervisory employee perpetrates workplace innuendo of this kind, the court wrote, the employer…

February 25, 2019

Business and Financial Services

Virginia Employers: Are Your Non-Competes Enforceable?

Restrictive covenants continue to be among the most hotly contested employment law issues in Virginia. Non-solicitation and non-competition clauses are fundamentally important to a business like yours. Drafted well, they provide your company with significant legal protections against a key employee usurping the sales opportunities and client relationships developed while in your employ to start a competing business or to provide an unfair advantage to one of your competitors. However, Virginia…

August 1, 2018