Insights

January 09, 2025
|
Category: Agency Enforcement

EEOC and OFCCP Modify Long-Standing MOU; DOJ Ends Its Participation

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) December 17, 2024, outlining how they will share information and process discrimination charges and complaints. Before doing so, the agencies rescinded a similar 2020 MOU that included the Department of Justice. The EEOC enforces Title VII of the 1964 Civil...
Read More
January 06, 2025
|
Category: Agency Enforcement

Last Biden Regulatory Agenda Shows Limited Progress on Employment-Related Regulations

The Biden Administration has published the Fall 2024 semi-annual regulatory agenda. The unveiling of the current administration’s final regulatory agenda is largely an academic exercise in view of the Trump Administration’s imminent arrival, but it shows that the Biden Administration made little progress on workplace regulatory priorities in the last few months. According to the agenda: EEOC had planned to...
Read More
January 06, 2025
|
Category: Discrimination and Harassment

New EEOC Fact Sheet Highlights Compliance Risks Related to Wearable Technologies in the Workplace

Wearable technologies in the workplace are the subject of a fact sheet released by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on December 19, 2024. Examples of wearable devices include smart watches that track employees’ activities or monitor their condition, proximity sensors that warn wearers of nearby hazards, smart glasses and helmets that measure the brain’s electrical activity, and GPS devices that...
Read More
January 02, 2025
|
Category: Immigration

DHS Issues Another Rule Seeking To Modernize the H-1B Visa Program

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has published a second final rule aimed at modernizing the H-1B specialty occupation visa program. The “Modernizing H-1B Requirements” final rule goes into effect January 17, 2025. In February 2024, USCIS published the first part of its H-1B modernization rule, which implemented a new lottery process to reduce fraud....
Read More
December 30, 2024
|
Category: State and Local Law

CWC Interstate: November/December 2024 Update

The Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), our affiliated nonprofit membership association, presents an Interstate memo, which covers developments since October 2024. Several states took actions related to paid leave laws: Alaska’s Ballot Measure 1 provides up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per year. Maine’s Department of Labor published final rules for the Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) Program....
Read More
December 23, 2024
|
Category: Agency Enforcement

Congress Again Averts Government Shutdown by Approving 3-Month Funding Extension

With the government scheduled to run out of funding on December 20, Congress approved a short-term stopgap measure to keep the doors open through March 28, 2025. This year, Congress again failed to pass an annual appropriations bill to fund the federal government before the new fiscal began October 1. Instead, lawmakers enacted a three-month Continuing Resolution that kept government...
Read More
December 19, 2024
|
Category: Agency Enforcement

California Is Cracking Down on Employer Noncompliance With Ban-the-Box Law

California’s Civil Rights Department recently entered into settlements with multiple companies over alleged violations of the state’s ban-the-box law, CRD announced December 3. The settlements involved allegations that the companies violated the California Fair Chance Act by improperly rejecting job applicants based on their criminal history. CRD concluded that the companies violated the Act by: Failing to show a direct...
Read More
December 19, 2024
|
Category: Affirmative Action and Diversity

Federal Appeals Court Vacates Nasdaq’s Board Diversity Rules

A federal appeals court has vacated the Nasdaq stock market’s rule requiring Nasdaq-listed companies to disclose diversity data for their boards of directors. In 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved Nasdaq’s proposal to require most Nasdaq-listed companies to have at least one female and one minority/LGBTQ board member or explain their lack of diversity. The rule also required covered companies to...
Read More
December 17, 2024
|
Category: Affirmative Action and Diversity

Maryland District Court Allows Naval Academy To Consider Race in Admissions

The Naval Academy’s consideration of applicants’ race in admissions decisions does not violate the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee, a federal court ruled December 6 in Students for Fair Admissions v. U.S. Naval Academy. In upholding the Naval Academy’s practice, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland distinguished this case from last year’s Supreme Court Harvard decision, which rejected...
Read More
December 11, 2024
|
Category: Discrimination and Harassment

DOJ Releases Fact Sheet on Anti-Discrimination Rights of Green Card Holders

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Immigrant and Employee Rights Section, has issued a Fact Sheet that outlines workplace discrimination protections for permanent residents (often called “green card holders”). IER’s two-page Fact Sheet, published in November, is entitled “Lawful Permanent Residents’ Employment Rights Under the Immigration and Nationality Act.” It delineates protections under the INA in three areas: hiring, firing,...
Read More

Categories

Talk with an EASI Consultant.

Get in Touch

Talk with an EASI Consultant.

Get in Touch