Employment Law Notebook

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has just issued a ruling that deals a serious blow to the practice of tip pooling. It remains to be seen of other federal circuits (or SCOTUS) will follow suit. I expect that this is where the trend is heading.

On March 10, 2016 (12:30pm EST), Jonathan Meyers will present a CLE seminar, through Lawline.com, which will be a Primer on Employee Handbooks in New Jersey.  Follow the link to see the program summary or register:

http://www.lawline.com/cle/course/a-primer-on-nj-employee-handbooks

Meyers Fried-Grodin LLP has been accepted into the 2016 Legal Directory for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA).  You can check out the NJBIA at http://www.njbia.org/

The New Jersey Appellate Division issued a decision holding that arbitration clauses (i.e., an agreement by an employee to arbitrate legal claims and give up the right to a jury trial in court), are invalid if they are contained in an employee manual which contains an at-will disclaimer -- which almost all prudent employers do include in t

For 2016, the minimum wage in New York is now $9.00 per hour.  Here is the information from the State's website:

http://www.labor.ny.gov/workerprotection/laborstandards/workprot/minwage...

On June 30, 2015, the New York State Court of Appeals granted leave to hear a matter being handled by Meyers Fried-Grodin LLP.  The case is Charite et al v. Duane Reade, Inc. et al., 2015 NY Slip Op 77726 (N.Y.

Yesterday, the New Jersey Legislature approved a bill commonly referred to as the Facebook bill, which will govern what employers in New Jersey can and cannot do regarding employees’ communications on their personal social media accounts.  It is awaiting the Governor’s signature.

A local Colorado newspaper recently reported that several restaurants in Aspen Colorado were contacted by the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate payroll and other employee records.

Discrimination charges alleging retaliation (an allegation that some kind of adverse action was taken against an employee because he or she complained of discrimination) comprised the largest percentage of all charges (38.1 percent) filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) in its 2012 fiscal year.  Such charges have been rising steadily since 2007.