In this podcast, recorded live from Ogletree Deakins’ 2022 Workplace Strategies seminar, Leigh Nason and Lauren Hicks discuss certain initiatives launched by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) that impose new burdens on federal government contractors and subcontractors to meet their Affirmative Action Program (AAP) obligations. Specifically, Leigh and Lauren examine the nuances of the new Contractor Portal certification process and OFCCP’s directive on pay equity audits, and share key takeaways as to compliance requirements.

In this podcast interview recorded live from Workplace Strategies, Ogletree Deakins’ annual labor and employment law seminar for human resources professionals and in-house counsel, Jocelyn Samuels, vice chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), shares valuable insights on the agency’s current agenda and enforcement priorities, including the EEOC’s artificial intelligence fairness initiative, and offers guidance on the steps employers can take to remain compliant now and in the future. This insider interview with Vice Chair Samuels covers the evolution of the commission’s guidance on COVID-19–related issues and recent updates on key topics, including religious accommodations and caregiver discrimination.

In this podcast, Kara Lancaster and Derek Maka discuss recent updates U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has made to its policy on work authorization for H-4, L-2, and E dependent spouses. The speakers explain the differences within USCIS’s new guidance, the filing strategies employers may see H-4, L-2, and E dependent spouses use to benefit from these changes, as well as the I-9 implications for employers.

In this episode of In The Breakroom With Bill, host Bill Grob is joined by Dee Anna Hays to discuss Florida’s House Bill 7, which, among other things, would prohibit employers from requiring that employees complete training or instruction “that espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individual to believe” specific claims constitute discrimination. Our speakers explain the details of the bill, in addition to the open questions presented by the statute, and how Florida employers might need to alter their training programs to bring them into compliance with the proposed law.

The registration window for the fiscal year (FY) 2023 H-1B cap lottery closed on March 18, 2022, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is expected to notify registrants of the selection results by M arch 31, 2022. With demand expected to exceed the number of H-1B visas available, what options remain for foreign national employees who are not selected in the lottery? In this podcast, Katherine MacIlwaine and Katie Desmond address this question and explain the requirements for qualifying for other types of employment-based visas.

When should employers be liable for the hostile work environment created by supervisors’ sexually harassing conduct? This episode examines the legal saga that untangled this question and the United States Supreme Court’s extraordinary decision to create the two-part Faragher-Ellerth affirmative defense.

When the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) conducts an inspection, issues a citation, and seeks enforcement of a contested citation, it has its own attorneys.  The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Solicitor represents OSHA and provides the agency legal opinions and advice concerning all of its activities. In this episode of Dirty Steel-Toe Boots, host Phillip Russell is joined by former Solicitor and current Ogletree Deakins attorney, Jaslyn Johnson, to discuss the role of the Solicitor’s Office and what employers should understand about how OSHA works with its attorneys during inspections and enforcement actions.

In this edition of our Third Thursdays podcast series, Ruthie Goodboe is joined by Elizabeth Soveranez and Bethany Wagner to discuss the evolving legal landscape in the debate over the status of college athletes as students or employees. The speakers focus on challenges to the present model of collegiate athletics from both labor and employment perspectives and discuss National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo’s memorandum expressing her position that certain student-athletes are employees under the National Labor Relations Act.

In this podcast, Sarah Platt and Kelly Cardin discuss the latest legal trend in pay equity and pay transparency initiatives in the United States: city and state laws requiring employers to proactively disclose pay scale information. The speakers cover the rapid evolution of pay disclosure legislation and address key obligations for employers, with added focus on the pay disclosure requirements of laws in Colorado, Connecticut, and New York City. The speakers highlight the challenges employers face when complying with these laws and offer considerations for employers navigating the laws’ impacts on recruiting, hiring practices, and internal employee relations.

In this podcast, Rebecca Lindell and Abbey Wallach discuss Colorado employers’ paid sick leave obligations and related requirements under the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA), which has wide-ranging implications for Colorado employers of all sizes. The speakers focus on the public health emergency (PHE) leave portion of the HFWA, addressing the qualifying events that trigger employers’ ongoing obligation to provide paid sick leave, employees’ permitted uses of PHE leave, and the factors affecting employees’ entitlement to and allotment of such leave. The speakers also present a series of hypotheticals crafted in part from guidance issued by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment addressing the interplay between PHE leave and accrued paid sick leave required under the HFWA.