On May 24, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit found the latter. A 3–0 court held that an employer violates the Americans with Disabilities Act when it (a) fails to provide a reasonable accommodation to a qualified employee, and (b) the employee suffers an adverse action because of the failure to accommodate.
On May 10, 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill (SB) 1718, immigration-related legislation that will require employers to use the E-Verify system and will impose criminal penalties on individuals transporting undocumented immigrants into Florida.
The Florida legislature recently passed Senate Bill (SB) 1718 , which, if signed into law, would require both private employers with twenty-five or more employees and public employers in Florida to use the E-Verify system to verify the employment eligibility of new employees starting July 1, 2023.
Senate Bill (SB) 1718 has been approved by both chambers of the Florida Legislature, but section 787.07, which had included criminal penalties for transporting undocumented immigrants, has been modified.
Ogletree Deakins recently launched its OSHA Tracker, which compiles and filters inspection and citation data by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) region, state, city, industry, and date. Employers in Region 4—covering Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee—may find the trends and, in some cases, surprises, among OSHA’s inspections, citations, and penalties data useful in planning and implementing their workplace safety programs.
The Florida Legislature recently introduced legislation (Senate Bill (SB) 1718) that would ramp up the penalties imposed on counties and municipalities that “knowingly employ, hire, recruit, or refer, either for herself or himself or on behalf of another, for private or public employment within the state, an alien who is not duly authorized to work.” If enacted, the bill would increase what are already considerable penalties for public employers.
A bill working its way through the Florida Legislature would criminalize the “knowing[] and willful[]” transportation of undocumented immigrants “into or within” the state. If enacted, Senate Bill 1718 could impact Florida’s hospitality and agricultural sectors.
Ogletree Deakins’ recently released OSHA Tracker tool allows employers to search and filter Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) data to identify emerging issues and OSHA enforcement trends. This interactive tool compiles comprehensive OSHA inspection, citation, and penalty data and allows employers to create custom searches and filter by OSHA region, state, industry, or date.
Several state and local minimum wage rates will increase in 2023, with a majority of the changes effective on January 1, 2023. The following chart lists state and certain major locality minimum wage increases for 2023—and future years, if available—along with the related changes in the maximum tip credit and minimum cash wage for tipped employees.
On October 3, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held in Ellison v. Postmaster General, United States Postal Service that a plaintiff bringing a claim for retaliation failed to exhaust his administrative remedies under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to amend his U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charge when the alleged retaliatory conduct occurred.
Over the last several years, business-to-business “no-hire” and “no-poach” agreements have come under legal attack, including through enforcement actions by the Federal Trade Commission and criminal prosecutions by the U.S. Department of Justice. Even President Biden jumped into the fray on July 9, 2021, when he issued his “Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy.”
On September 30, 2022, the minimum wage in Florida will increase from $10 per hour to $11 per hour for standard employees and from $6.98 per hour to $7.98 per hour for tipped workers. This increase is part of the state’s plan to raise the rate to $15 per hour by 2026.
On August 18, 2022, U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker issued a preliminary injunction blocking part of a Florida’s H.B. 7, known as the Individual Freedom Act (IFA), which prohibits employers from requiring employees to undergo a training “that espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels” employees to believe any of various sex- and race-based discrimination concepts.
On June 15, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a decision limiting the reach of the emergency response provisions of 29 C.F.R. § 1910.120, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Standard—the so-called “HazWoper” (or “HAZWOPER”) standard.
On June 9, 2022, a divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit decided an unpaid intern who participated in a forensic photography training program was not entitled to wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Several state and local minimum wage rates will increase in the latter half of 2022, with most of these changes effective on July 1, 2022. Increases to minimum wage rates for nonexempt employees and tipped employees in Florida will occur later in the year, on September 30, 2022.
On March 18, 2022, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Compere v. Nusret Miami, LLC, a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), that Nusr-et Steakhouse properly used automatically charged fees on bills to pay its employees’ wages because the fees were service charges. The plaintiffs, a group of tipped employees, had argued these fees were not service charges but instead were tips. The distinction is critical because service charges and tips are treated very differently under federal laws and regulations.
In 2022, while the federal minimum wage will remain at $7.25 per hour for non-tipped employees and $2.13 per hour for tipped employees, several states’ minimum wage rates will increase. The chart below lists the state (and certain major locality) minimum wage rate increases for 2022—and future years if available—along with the related changes in the maximum tip credit and minimum cash wage for tipped employees.
On December 3, 2021, the Florida Department of Legal Affairs of the state attorney general’s office issued an emergency rule establishing the procedure for private employer vaccination mandate complaints under section 381.00317(3) and (4), Florida Statutes. The rule sets forth the complaint procedure, beginning with providing further clarification regarding key terms in the statute. The department also published a list of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) that provides further information for employers.
In a November 30, 2021, order, a federal judge sitting in Louisiana entered a nationwide preliminary injunction against the Biden administration’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) interim final rule entitled “Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Omnibus COVID-19 Health Care Staff Vaccination.” The effect of the order is that CMS must immediately “cease all implementation or enforcement of the [CMS] Rule” in the remaining 40 states not covered by an earlier November 29, 2021, order from a federal judge sitting in Missouri that prevented implementation and enforcement of the CMS rule in only 10 states.
On November 18, 2021, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law measures that immediately prohibit workplace COVID-19 vaccine mandates for private and public employers and begin the process for Florida establishing a state occupational safety and health plan.
On November 15, 2021, the Florida Legislature will convene a five-day special session under the proclamation issued on October 29, 2021, by Governor Ron DeSantis for the “Keep Florida Free” joint legislative agenda.
A recent amendment to child support laws will impose new and potentially onerous requirements on Florida businesses, starting October 1, 2021. The new law removes the current 250-employee threshold for new hire reporting, and, for the first time, requires businesses to report information regarding certain independent contractors.
For years, Scott Dinin was one of South Florida’s most prolific filers of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) cases. His run ended two years ago, when, after obtaining default judgments against two gas stations on behalf of his client, Alexander Johnson, Dinin submitted a request for attorneys’ fees whose billing entries caught the attention of Judge Paul Huck of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
States have been busy when it comes to marijuana laws. Before the mid-2010s, employers tended not to worry about state marijuana laws because of marijuana’s illegal status under federal law. However, those days are over, and state marijuana legalization laws continue to affect how employers can run their workplaces.
On April 7, 2021, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals rendered its long-awaited opinion in Gil v. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., reversing a trial court’s decision against Winn-Dixie, holding that websites are not places of public accommodation under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and that Winn-Dixie’s website does not violate 42 U.S.C. § 12182(b)(2)(A)(iii).
In November 2020, voters in five states (Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota) voted in favor of legalizing medical and/or recreational marijuana. Since then, there have been several developments within the marijuana legalization world that employers may want to keep an eye on as they move forward in 2021.
On February 1, 2021, in an unpublished opinion resolving a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) attorney’s fees dispute, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in Batista v. South Florida Womans Health Associates, Inc., struck another blow against unreasonable plaintiffs’ counsel seeking “reasonable” fees.
Over 1,500 COVID-19–related employment lawsuits were filed in the United States in 2020. Ogletree Deakins’ Interactive COVID-19 Litigation Tracker highlights the industries impacted, locations, and types of claims in these matters.
On December 31, 2020, the Florida Supreme Court rendered an opinion in In Re: Amendments to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.1510, No. SC20-1490, aligning Florida’s rules of civil procedure with the supermajority of U.S. states and formally adopting the federal standard for summary judgment motions.
