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Category Archives: Wage & Hour

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Paid Sick Leave (PSL) “Fixes” Pass State Senate; Final Approval Expected

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Legislative Developments, Wage & Hour

Shortly after passage of the Paid Sick Leave law a few years ago, it became apparent that there were several quirks in the law that would make enforcement and compliance challenging in some places. I highlighted a few issues in a post back then. Well, the General Assembly has been working on a bill to… Continue Reading

Offers of Judgment in FLSA Collective Actions: Another Tool for Wage & Hour Claims

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Litigation, Wage & Hour

Last week, while most of us were focused on the events in Boston, the U.S. Supreme Court came down with a notable decision last week involving a wage & hour class action (it’s actually called a “collective” action, but for the non-lawyers out there, just think of it as a class action) and what should… Continue Reading

The Beginning of the End for Wage & Hour Class Actions Through Arbitration Agreements? Second Circuit Sets Stage

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Discrimination & Harassment, Highlight, Litigation, Wage & Hour

Suppose you have your employees’ sign agreements to arbitrate all of  their employment disputes.  (I’ve talked about arbitration agreements in many posts before.) Can you have an arbitration agreement that says that an employee is precluded from bringing a Title VII (race or gender discrimination) class action claim in Court? Employees have argued that because most arbitration agreements… Continue Reading

Spring Cleaning: Time to Update Some FMLA and I-9 Forms & Posters

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Laws and Regulations, Manager & HR Pro’s Resource Center, Wage & Hour

For lawyers, anytime there’s a change, it seems to be a big deal. But for employers, change is inevitable and part of business.  Indeed, if a new poster is required by employers, most employers simply shrug and order a new poster on the internet through a site like Gneil.com. My colleague, Jon Orleans (fresh off his… Continue Reading

More Litigation, More “Doing” Assistant Store Manager Overtime Cases

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Litigation, Wage & Hour

At 47 pages, U.S. District Court Judge Hall’s decision last week in Costello v. Home Depot USA (download here) denying an employer’s motion for summary judgment in an overtime case, isn’t exactly a light read.  She is, of course, not to blame. The case is complicated and has a “somewhat convoluted procedural history” because it was first filed… Continue Reading

Dog Days (of Winter) are Over: Audits for Worker Misclassification On Increase

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Wage & Hour

Consistent readers of the blog will no doubt know of my weaving in pop culture into blog posts. So it was with some good fortune that as I began to write this post, the song “Dog Days are Over” popped up on my iPhone speakers in typical Shuffle-mode fashion.  Seems only appropriate as I pass along… Continue Reading

From the Archives: Offer Letters in Connecticut

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Wage & Hour

As I take a few days off, here’s a post from WAY back in 2009 about offer letters that you may have missed. With employers doing more hiring in 2013, it takes on added relevance.   In my series of the “basics” of various employment laws (see prior installments here,here and here), this week the topic is offer… Continue Reading

Connecticut’s Paid Sick Leave (PSL) Law: Does It Work?

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Laws and Regulations, Wage & Hour

The title of the post is a bit misleading because the answer to the question is, at this point, unanswerable.  In what ways do we measure success under Connecticut’s Paid Sick Leave law? The number of employees who have used it? The people who didn’t get sick as a result? The overall flu rate? Of… Continue Reading

Gender Inequality Claims Make Headlines in Case and in New Study

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Discrimination & Harassment, Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Legislative Developments, Litigation, Manager & HR Pro’s Resource Center, Wage & Hour

Over the last week, two unrelated stories caught my eye.  For employers, they are a reminder that claims of pay inequality based on gender are still something to be concerned about.  The first story is that Governor Malloy announced plans for a new study to examine “factors that contribute to the gender wage gap in Connecticut’s workforce.” … Continue Reading

2013 Legislative Session: Minimum Wage, Captive Audience and an Employer’s Bill of Rights

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Highlight, Legislative Developments, Wage & Hour

The Connecticut General Assembly is back at work so it’s time to take a quick peek to see what’s percolating. The Connecticut Business and Industry Association highlighted the “captive audience” bill as bill that is resurfacing, even though the Attorney General has previously raised doubts about the constitutionality of it.  The bill would restrict communications… Continue Reading

Should You Care That Supreme Court Will Rule on Offers Of Judgment in Wage Cases?

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Litigation, Wage & Hour

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Not all employment law cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court matter are of equal significance and importance to employers. What? How can that be, you say? It’s the SUPREME COURT!  Isn’t everything that they say important? Well, sort of. The truth is that sometimes… Continue Reading

Why Don’t You Get Paid For Time Spent Traveling From Home To Office?

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Manager & HR Pro’s Resource Center, Wage & Hour

From time to time, there are various questions that keep recurring in the labor & employment law area.  One of them is in the area of travel time for non-exempt employees. (For exempt employees, they get paid a fixed salary no matter how much time they work or travel.) The easiest question to answer is… Continue Reading

Four Potential Employment Law Impacts of Obama’s Next Four Years

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Featured, Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Labor Law & NRLB, Litigation, Wage & Hour

President Obama was re-elected to a second term last night (something forecasted by stats guru Nate Silver). What does it mean for employers? I won’t go quite as far as fellow blogger Jon Hyman, who said this morning that “it just doesn’t matter” who won last night.  I think it matters in part. But the impact… Continue Reading

A Look Back at Obama’s (First?) Four Years and Employment Law

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Discrimination & Harassment, Labor Law & NRLB, Laws and Regulations, Legislative Developments, Wage & Hour

Finally, today is Election Day.   And while the pundits tonight will all look forward to what the next four years might bring, it’s worth taking a quick peek back at Obama’s (first?) four years with a review of some of the posts from 2008-9. Before his term, there were predictions that he would be good… Continue Reading

Secrets of the ABA Labor and Employment Law Annual Conference

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Discrimination & Harassment, Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Labor Law & NRLB, Litigation, Manager & HR Pro’s Resource Center, Social Media, Wage & Hour

The American Bar Association’s Labor & Employment Law Annual Conference is going on right now in Atlanta, Georgia.  As I’ve recapped on this blog before (here, for example), there are some terrific programs and educational opportunities there.  I wasn’t able to make it down this year, but due to the wonders of technology, I’ve been… Continue Reading

Hurricane Sandy: Have Employers Learned the Lessons From Last Year’s Storms?

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Wage & Hour

We interrupt our normally scheduled post on a recent Second Circuit case…. Monday is an anniversary that many of us in Connecticut will long remember – the anniversary of the big October snowstorm (or “Alfred” as Channel 3 called it).   Combine that storm with Irene earlier in 2011, and we’ve seen more than our share… Continue Reading

A New Whistleblower Retaliation Statute Grows Up: Dodd-Frank is the new Sarbanes-Oxley.

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Laws and Regulations, Litigation, Wage & Hour

Reading the headline, I’m sure a few of you rolled your eyes.  Dodd-Frank? Sarbanes-Oxley? Those statutes are seen as dull and tedious.  But a new federal court decision in Connecticut should start to change that, and it has implications for employers nationwide.  The case is Kramer v. Trans-Lux, which you can download here. It addressed an employer’s motion… Continue Reading

Intermittent Leave for Foster Care & Adoption? Only If Employer Approves

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Laws and Regulations, Manager & HR Pro’s Resource Center, Wage & Hour

I’ve said it before many times: One reason employment law is so interesting is that just when you think you’ve figured things out, you can rediscover little quirks in the law that you may have overlooked on first glance. My latest example came last week when an out-of-state lawyer and friend called me to discuss a legal concept. … Continue Reading

Five Things To Know About Paid Sick Leave, NLRB and Other New Developments

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Highlight, Laws and Regulations, Legislative Developments, Social Media, Wage & Hour

At yesterday’s labor & employment law seminar, we had both Heidi Lane, a Prinicipal Attorney with the Connecticut Department of Labor, and Jonathan Kreisberg, Regional Director of the NLRB’s Hartford Office, speak to attendees about the latest developments under both Connecticut and federal law. But for those who couldn’t make it, here are five notable things they discussed: 1)… Continue Reading

Breaking: Conn. Supreme Court Holds CTFMLA Applies Only If Employer Has 75+ Conn. Employees

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Laws and Regulations, Litigation, Wage & Hour

The Connecticut Supreme Court this week issued its decision in Velez v. Commissioner of Labor. The decision, which has been long-awaited, holds that the Connecticut Family and Medical Leave Act applies only to employers that have 75 or more Connecticut employees. In practical terms, this means that large employers with small Connecticut locations will not… Continue Reading

Five Ideas on The Next Five Years

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Social Media, Wage & Hour

So, now that I’ve finished up the first five years, it’s time to think about what’s in store over the next five years.  It’d be easy to punt on the subject, but I’m going to take a crack at it.  Here are some ideas on where we’ll be in another five years.  Check back in… Continue Reading

Exclusive: Employment Law Seminars (For Free!) Set for October 4th and 18th

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Social Media, Wage & Hour

I’m pleased to let you know that my firm, Pullman & Comley, LLC is again sponsoring two seminars on labor & employment law next month.  These complimentary seminars, which include both breakfast and lunch, will be held on October 4th in Hartford and October 18th in Norwalk.   They will run from about 8:00a-2:30p each day. … Continue Reading

Back to School for Kids; Back to Work Limits for Employers for Child Labor

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Laws and Regulations, Wage & Hour

For many kids (including my own), today marks the first day back to school. While that may seem like “child labor” to them, that term obviously means something different. What some employers fail to realize is that the start of school also means the start of limits to on what high school students can do… Continue Reading

Head of Teachers’ Union Nominated as Next Department of Labor Commssioner

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Labor Law & NRLB, Laws and Regulations, Legislative Developments, Wage & Hour

Yesterday, Governor Dannel Malloy nominated Sharon Palmer, who has led the state’s chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, to be the next commssioner of the Connecticut Department of Labor. Numerous press outlets have summaries this morning including CT Mirror, CT News Junkie and The Hartford Courant.  You can read the Governor’s press release here…. Continue Reading