Insights

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Category: Compliance Reporting and Recordkeeping

Responding to Item 21 on the OFCCP Scheduling Letter’s Itemized Listing

In the year since the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) began using a more burdensome Scheduling Letter and Itemized Listing to notify federal contractors of an upcoming compliance evaluation, Item 21 on the Itemized Listing has generated confusion. Item 21 asks the contractor to identify and document “policies, practices, or systems used to recruit, screen, and...
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Category: Agency Enforcement

DOL and NLRB Commit To Further Assist Antitrust Agencies in Merger Investigations

The Department of Labor (DOL) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the government’s antitrust enforcement agencies, committing to share information that could help in investigations of allegedly anticompetitive merger acquisitions. The MOU with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), formally called the Memorandum of Understanding on...
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Category: FLSA

Fifth Circuit Vacates DOL’s “80/20 Rule” for Paying Tipped Workers

A federal appeals court has thrown out the Biden Administration’s “80/20 Rule” rule governing the payment of tipped employees, finding it contrary to the language of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In Restaurant Law Center v. U.S. Department of Labor, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit invalidated the rule on August 23,...
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Category: State and Local Law

CWC Interstate: August 2024 Update

This Interstate memo covers state developments since July, including: California: Assembly Bill 2288/Senate Bill 92 amends the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Illinois: SB 3649 effectively bans captive audience meetings. Illinois: HB 3773 clarifies that employers may not use artificial intelligence (AI) that discriminates based on protected characteristics and that employers must notify applicants and employees before using AI in employment-related decisions. Illinois: H.B....
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Category: Discrimination and Harassment

8th Circuit Rejects Claim That Firing for Posting Anti-LGBTQ+ Language Was Religious Discrimination

Arconic Corp. did not discriminate on the basis of religion under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it fired an employee for posting anti-LGBTQ+ language on its intranet site, even though the employee’s post was based on his sincere religious beliefs, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has ruled. In upholding a federal trial...
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Category: Comment Letter

CWC Urges USDA To Keep “Blacklisting” Out of Its Revised Procurement Regulations

The Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), our affiliated nonprofit membership association, filed comments August 27 supporting the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to drop controversial blacklisting provisions from its proposed overhaul of its procurement regulations. USDA’s decision to drop the provisions is a reversal from the proposed overhaul of the Agriculture Acquisition Regulation (AGAR) that the agency published two years...
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Category: Litigation

Federal Court Permanently Blocks FTC’s Controversial Non-Compete Rule

A federal district court in Texas has issued an order overturning a recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rule that bans most non-compete agreements. As a result, the rule will not take effect as scheduled September 4. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled August 20, 2024, in Ryan LLC v. FTC that the FTC’s non-compete rule,...
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Category: Data and Statistics

Latest National Substance Abuse Survey Shows Drug Use Up, Alcohol Use Down

The most recent national drug and alcohol use survey, which covers 2023, shows that illicit drug use was up among U.S. workers while alcohol use was down, compared with 2022. Findings from the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), conducted annually by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), show an increase in the...
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Category: Compensation

Massachusetts Latest State To Require Pay Ranges in Job Postings

Massachusetts has become the latest state to require covered employers to post salary ranges in their job listings. H.4890, signed into law by Governor Healey on July 31, 2024, will require employers with 25 or more employees in Massachusetts to disclose pay ranges in job postings and provide a pay range to employees to whom they offer a transfer or...
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Category: Immigration

USCIS Conducts Second H-1B Registration Lottery

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has conducted a second H-1B visa registration lottery to generate enough petitions to fill this year’s visa cap allotment. Employers selected in the second lottery should have received notice from USCIS that they are now eligible to file an H-1B petition for the beneficiary named in the selected registration. CWC members that registered in...

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