In a significant legal development, a Texas federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction against the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) rule that bans noncompete agreements. This ruling is in response to a challenge by tax preparation company Ryan LLC and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The court’s decision puts a temporary hold on the rule
DOL Rule Raising Salary Thresholds (Mostly) Survives Initial Legal Challenges and is Now in Effect
It’s not often that we have to provide day-to-day updates on the status of the United States Department of Labor rule that raises salary thresholds for overtime exemptions, but here we are.
My colleague, Sarah Westby, posted an update yesterday on a major case from Texas in which the state challenged the rule. Late last…
The Biggest Day in Employment Law of the Year
If you had April 23, 2024 as the biggest day in employment law of the year on your bingo card, congratulations. You won. Hands down.
Yesterday was such a blockbuster of a day, it’s hard to wrap your head around it. (My partner Sarah Westby and I have tried, and have summarized the results on…
Why the FTC’s Proposed Rule was Predictable
For employers, the time is ripe to think about a new strategy going forward. That strategy may focus on protection of confidential information and specific non-solicitation clauses. Regardless, the time of using non-compete agreements broadly may be coming to an end soon.
The recent announcement of the proposed…
Court Stays OSHA ETS, But We Know All Too Well It’s Not the Last Word
Last week, I deleted the Twitter app off my iPhone as a bit of an experiment. I’ve done this a few times before — but the start of the pandemic back in early 2020 had me going full on Twitter since then. After all, if it’s important, it’s on Twitter, right?
Well, not exactly. In fact, when I was sick for a few days, I kept turning to Twitter and finding…not much that merited the visit to the app — just boredom. (Never fear though, I can still access it on my computer browser.) Nevertheless, I wondered how much I’d miss if I just took it of my phone.
The first real answer came on Friday when news came of the Fifth Circuit’s beatdown decision to stay enforcement of the OSHA vax or test Emergency Temporary Standard. Turns out you can hear about it the same time as others even without being on Twitter.
But what happened next was interesting for me — nothing. Without being on Twitter, I missed the immediate reactions, overreactions, snark, and, sure, some actual insights.
And that’s ok.
We are entering a time during this pandemic when the changes are happening more incrementally and slowly. Perhaps we are headed for a modest 5th wave here, for example. That might require employers to adjust on the fly again. But speed isn’t everything right now.
Thus, with the luxury of a few more days to ponder and think, where are we now on the OSHA rule?
Continue Reading Court Stays OSHA ETS, But We Know All Too Well It’s Not the Last Word
Musings on the (Now Stayed) New OSHA Federal Vaccination or Test Rule
Being sick over the last week brought me a lot of unexpected “gifts”. Sure, there were the forced afternoon naps (oh, who’s kidding, even a morning nap too) . The watching of “The Price is Right” at least once (or was it twice?). The early start of a post-pandemic diet.
But also the “gift” of…
Obama-Era Proposed Overtime Rules Struck Down By Court
A federal district court in Texas yesterday struck down (once and for all?) the changes to the overtime rules proposed by the Obama Administration. Previously, those rules (affecting the white collar exemptions) had been stayed, but the Court’s ruling suggests that there is a fatal…
New Model Rules Make It Unethical to Discriminate
As I have for over a decade now, I attended the American Bar Association’s Annual Meeting last week serving on the ABA’s House of Delegates – the organization’s main governing body. My exact position is actually State Delegate — a position that nominally makes the lead delegate of Connecticut’s delegation, though in practice it’s much…
Volunteers: Can They Really Help Fix Your Issues With New Overtime Rules?
Over the weekend, I finished planning for our webinar tomorrow on the new overtime rules. In digging deeper into the materials produced by the Department of Labor on the final rule, I looked at the use of volunteers as a solution — particularly for non-profit organizations.
For the “for-profit” world, this is probably not a…
Three Things to Look For In Final Overtime Regulations
Late Monday, several reports on Twitter indicated that the Department of Labor would be announcing and releasing the final version of the revisions to the white-collar overtime regulations. You can see my prior posts on the subject here and here.
This has been a long time…