In the wake of the Michigan Supreme Court’s ruling regarding the state’s COVID-19-related executive orders, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) has issued new orders, the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) has ramped up enforcement of COVID-19-related protocols, and local counties are issuing their own orders as well.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued two executive orders over the past several days that will impact certain employers that are responding to the coronavirus outbreak and COVID-19. On March 14, 2020, Executive Order 2020-06 was rescinded and replaced with Executive Order 2020-07, which places temporary restrictions on individuals who may enter health care facilities, residential care facilities, congregate care facilities, and juvenile justice facilities. On March 16, 2020, Executive Order 2020-05 was rescinded and replaced with Executive Order 2020-11, which places restrictions on large assemblages and events.
On March 26, 2018, Governor Rick Snyder signed an amendment to Michigan’s Local Government Labor Regulatory Limitation Act into law. Public Act 84 (2018) prohibits local government bodies from adopting or enforcing any local policy, resolution, or ordinance that regulates what a prospective employer must request, require, or exclude during the interview process or on an application for employment.
Effective January 1, 2017, 29 states plus the District of Columbia will have minimum wage rates that are above the federal minimum wage rate of $7.25 per hour. The District of Columbia will continue to have, as it did last year, one of the highest minimum wage rates in the country at $11.50 per hour until July 1, 2017, and $12.50 per hour after that date. With respect to state minimum wages, Massachusetts and Washington will have the highest minimum wages at $11.00 per hour effective January 1, 2017, with California close behind at $10.50 per hour (for employers with 26 or more employees), effective January 1, 2017, and Connecticut following at $10.10 per hour, effective January 1, 2017.
Revised overtime regulations are still scheduled to take effect on December 1, 2016, but an effort to halt them remains alive. Judge Amos L. Mazzant III, a federal judge for the Eastern District of Texas, held a hearing today on a preliminary injunction motion seeking to stop the revised regulations from taking effect nationwide.
A federal district court recently ruled that an employer-initiated program known as Onionhead was a religion for the purposes of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. United Health Programs, No. 14-CV-3673 (September 30, 2016), the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York held that Onionhead (also sometimes known as Harnessing Happiness) “qualifies as a religion” under Title VII.
A hearing has been scheduled for November 16, 2016 in a Texas federal court to decide whether an injunction will be issued to block the substantially increased salary threshold to qualify as exempt under the new overtime rule, which is anticipated to take effect on December 1, 2016.
On January 20, 2016, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor released an Administrator’s Interpretation (AI) on joint employment under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA).
Effective January 1, 2016, 29 states plus the District of Columbia will have minimum wage rates that are above the federal minimum wage rate of $7.25 per hour. The District of Columbia will have, by far, one of the highest minimum wage rates in the country at $10.50 per hour until July 1, 2016, and $11.50 per hour after that date. With respect to state minimum wages, California and Massachusetts are next at $10 per hour effective January 1, 2016. The states with the lowest minimum wages are Georgia and Wyoming, which both have rates of $5.15 per hour, along with Oklahoma, which allows employers that have fewer than 10 full-time employees and $100,000 or less in gross annual sales to pay $2.00 per hour to employees. Five states—Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee—have not enacted minimum wage laws. Of the 45 states plus the District of Columbia that have enacted minimum wage laws, 17—or just over one-third—will increase their minimum wage rates from 2015 to 2016.
On June 1, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States decided whether an employer’s obligations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are triggered only when an applicant has informed the employer of his or her need for an accommodation of a religious practice. In an 8-to-1 decision, the Court ruled that an applicant with a disparate-treatment claim is not required to show that an employer had knowledge of his or her need for an accommodation.
Picture this scenario. You are a busy manager of a retail organization. You assume that a sales employee is deeply religious because she wears religious symbols around her neck, talks about her pastor and church services frequently with coworkers, and says “Have a blessed day” to customers after she completes…..
As 2013 comes to an end, we have been considering a number of workplace issues that employers might face at the end of the year and the beginning of the holiday season. In parts one, two, three, four, and five of this blog series, we covered employers’ chief concerns when hiring…..
An employee cannot work on Friday evenings or Saturdays because his religious beliefs forbid working on the Sabbath. Another employee objects to contributing to co-worker birthday celebrations or union dues on religious grounds. Yet another worker asks for an exception to the uniform rules to allow her to wear a…..
For the past decade, employers have been frustrated by what they describe as a moving target when it comes to properly classifying employees as either exempt (and thus not eligible for overtime) or non-exempt (and thus overtime eligible) under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). For many, the U.S. Department…..
On June 18, 2012, with Justice Samuel Alito writing for a 5-4 majority, the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether the term “outside salesman,” as defined by Department of Labor (DOL) regulations, encompasses pharmaceutical sales representatives. The Court ruled that these sales representatives qualify as outside salesmen and thus, are exempt from the overtime compensation requirements
