Obama Administration Relaxes Employer Mandate

The moving target that is the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate keeps on moving.

The Treasury Department today issued a rule relaxing important employer requirements under the ACA, foremost among them to postpone the mandate for businesses with between 50 and 99 employees until 2016. More ›

Obama Administration Bends Individual Mandate Rules

With the deadline to select health coverage just days away, the Obama administration has given an early Christmas present to individuals whose policies were cancelled because of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”).

Those individuals will be temporarily “exempted” from the ACA’s individual mandate, according to a bulletin issued late Thursday from the Department of Health and Human Services. The rule change was spearheaded by a group of Democratic senators, many of whom face tough re-elections battles next year. More ›

California Restaurant Managers get Second Chance at Class Action

In Martinez v. Joe’s Crab Shack Holdings, the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District reversed an order denying class certification to a group of managerial restaurant employees allegedly misclassified as exempt.

The case was brought by lower-level managers at Joe’s Crab Shack restaurants throughout California who complained that they performed many of the same tasks as hourly employees but did not qualify for overtime pay due to their managerial status. More ›

California Will Not Allow Health Insurers to Reinstate Coverage

More than a million California residents whose health plans were cancelled under the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, will not be able to keep their existing coverage, despite President Obama’s directive that insurers keep such plans available for another year. More ›

Obamacare Chaos: Two Lessons for Employers

Dysfunctional websites. Low enrollment numbers. Public outrage over cancelled health policies. Mea cuplas. Presidential administrative “fix.”  Competing Congressional solutions. Finger pointing. It’s enough to make your head spin!

As an employer, you may be wondering what the recent flurry of activity surrounding the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) means for your business. This post presents the two most important lessons that employers should keep in mind following last week’s events. More ›

Senate Passes LGBT Workplace Anti-Discrimination Bill

The U.S. Senate passed a bill last week that would provide workplace protections to gays, lesbians and transgender individuals.

The so-called “Employment Nondiscrimination Act” passed the Democratic-led chamber on a 64 to 32 vote.  Arizona Sen. John McCain and Utah’s Orrin Hatch were among the ten Republicans who supported the measure. More ›

Pro-Union Attorney to Head NLRB

The U.S. Senate has confirmed union lawyer Richard Griffin to serve as general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”).

The board’s general counsel is instrumental in determining when and how actively to pursue claims against employers. Mr. Griffin’s appointment, which passed on a near-party-line vote, assures that the NLRB will continue its recent aggressive enforcement and expansion of labor rules. More ›

Courts may Certify Class Claims Where Damages Differ

In Benton v. Telecom Network Specialists, Inc., the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District affirmed that employee wage and hour and meal break cases may be suitable for class certification even where employees experience diverse damages.

The case supports the proposition that courts considering whether common issues predominate for class certification purposes must focus on plaintiffs’ theory of liability and not on whether class members will have to prove their damages individually. More ›

EEOC Ordered To Pay Attorney’s Fees and Costs After Bogus Discrimination Case

The Sixth Circuit has ordered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) to pay more than $750,000 in attorney’s fees and costs for pursuing a frivolous employment discrimination case.

The case, EEOC v. Peoplemark, is the latest in a cluster of judicial reproaches to the EEOC’s policy of aggressively targeting employers for conducting criminal background checks and allegedly declining to hire felons, practices the Commission believes disproportionately impact minorities. More ›

Arbitration Agreement Dos and Don’ts

We recently posted a summary of Peng v. First Republic Bank, a case discussing the validity of an arbitration agreement contained in an employment contract.  Peng is favorable for employers because the court there held that the compulsory arbitration agreement at issue was neither procedurally nor substantively unconscionable. More ›