Labor & Employment Blog

Last week, the Department of Labor (DOL) released a proposed rule that, if adopted, will raise the salary requirements for certain exempt employees. The DOL estimates its new rule could extend overtime protections to more than three million workers.

Most employers already know the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires covered employers to pay most employees an overtime premium for all hours worked over forty in a workweek. This general rule, however, does not apply to employees in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity, as long as the employee earns a ...

On August 18, 2023, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a much-awaited decision that broadens the scope of potential liability for employers under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. For about thirty years, the Fifth Circuit has applied a more restrictive standard for disparate-treatment liability under Title VII’s anti-discrimination provision—requiring an employee to prove alleged discrimination in connection with an “ultimate employment decision,” such as hiring, granting leave, discharging, promoting, or compensating. No more. The en banc Fifth ...

On August 2, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) changed the standard for deciding whether an employer’s workplace policy is lawful. In the recent Stericycle decision, the NLRB issued a split ruling reversing a Trump-era standard that made it easier for employers to defend workplace policies against claims that the policies deter employees from exercising their rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). Among other rights, Section 7 of the NLRA guarantees most non-managerial employees the right to engage in “concerted ...

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) goes into effect on June 27, 2023, and will provide additional protection for pregnant job applicants and employees. If your business has fifteen (15) or more employees, the PWFA will require you to provide reasonable accommodations for job applicants and employees for “known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions,” unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship.

The PWFA requires a reasonable accommodation regardless of whether the pregnant applicant or employee has a ...

On April 28, 2023, new employee remedies will take effect under the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act, a.k.a. the PUMP Act. The PUMP Act expands the rights of nursing employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by making it unlawful for an employer to deny a covered employee a needed break to pump or a private place to pump.

The FLSA already requires employers to provide reasonable break time to employees to express breast milk in a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from public view and free from intrusion. For one year after a child’s ...

If you, like most employers, have included non-disparagement or confidentiality provisions in your severance and settlement agreements, you will be interested in a recent decision from the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”). On February 21, 2023, in a 4-1 decision the NLRB held an employer violates Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) when it offers a severance agreement with non-disparagement and confidentiality provisions that would restrict employees’ exercise of their NLRA rights. While some employers mistakenly believe the NLRA ...

Today, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Hewitt v. Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc., holding that an oil rig supervisor paid a day rate is entitled to overtime pay because a day rate is not a “salary” within the meaning of the federal wage law—the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The FLSA requires employers to pay employees overtime pay of at least 1.5 times the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 hours in a workweek. However, certain employees are exempt from overtime. Companies ...

Yesterday, the FTC hosted a virtual forum during which six speakers from various industries provided their reactions to the proposed ban on non-compete agreements. The President of a Tennessee logistics company who founded the website www.endnoncompetes.com offered his opinion that non-competes are unnecessary and used to bully young people. He proudly announced that his company currently is violating around 100 non-compete agreements. A former Chief Human Resources Officer who now represents a public policy organization that advises chief human resources officers ...

Late last year, the Federal Trade Commission issued a policy statement that superseded its prior policy statements and guidance concerning the FTC’s interpretation of the scope and meaning of unfair methods of competition as addressed in the Federal Trade Commission Act (“FTC Act”). The FTC indicated it would no longer follow the “rule of reason” inquiry and, instead, focus on trying to stop unfair methods of competition “in their incipiency based on their tendency to harm competitive conditions.” The FTC stated an unfair method of competition need not cause ...

In a recent Shale Magazine article, Kellen Scott, shareholder in our Houston’s Labor & Employment and Commercial Litigation practices, discussed the U.S. House of Representatives passing the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act, H.R. 963. The bill, if enacted into law, would void all pre-dispute mandatory arbitration agreements in employment, antitrust, consumer, and civil rights matters. The FAIR Act also purports to eliminate pre-dispute class and collective action waiver provisions. 

If the FAIR Act were to pass in the Senate and be signed into law, it would ...