Point Two L&E Nation

On March 22, 2022, the New York City Commission on Human Rights released a Fact Sheet providing guidance to employers on Salary Transparency in Job Advertisements under New York City’s new law going into effect on May 15, 2022. Seyfarth Partner Rob Szyba leads a discussion with Katherine Greenberg, Special Counsel for the New York City Commission on Human Rights, to gain further clarification of what constitutes a “salary” for purposes of such disclosure, certain jurisdictional questions in the context of remote positions, and whether such salary disclosure itself constitutes age discrimination.

In part five of the series, Jerry outlines the ways in which workplace arbitration programs continued to have a profound impact on workplace class action litigation in 2021. Jerry discusses how these programs influenced the nature of class action litigation filed and shifted the types of claims and what to expect in 2022.

In part four of the series, Jerry analyzes the significant impact of COVID-19 on all aspects of life in 2021, including the legal system in general and workplace class action litigation in particular. Here Jerry explains how COVID-19 changed the class action world in 2021 and what lies ahead for 2022.

In part three of the series, Jerry details how government enforcement litigation shifted in 2021, with changes representing a significant shift in philosophy and practice. Jerry explains what occurred in the government enforcement world last year and what is apt to happen in 2022.

In part two of the series, Jerry focuses on the success factor of the plaintiffs' bar in class certification rulings in 2021. Jerry discusses how wage and hour litigation remained a sweet-spot for the plaintiffs' class action bar in 2021 and what that means for employers in 2022.

In our first episode, Jerry discusses how in 2021, the aggregate monetary value of workplace class action settlements exploded to an all-time high, as plaintiffs' lawyers and government enforcement agencies monetarized their claims at the highest values we have ever tracked.

Many employers and commentators alike expected the pandemic to depress the size and pace of settlements. Instead, the numbers show that the plaintiffs' bar was successful in converting case filings into significant settlement numbers at higher levels during the pandemic than in any of the preceding years.

To discipline or not to discipline. That is normally a challenging question for many managers, but this question takes on a life-or-death magnitude for employers who are going through a national talent shortage. Join Rob Szyba, Partner at Seyfarth, and Renada M. Williams, Associate General Counsel of The Vitamin Shoppe, in a discussion regarding the impact that talent shortages have had on businesses, the dilemma many managers face when disciplining employees at the risk of losing staff during a talent shortage, and considerations of the various consequences of performance evaluations that may not be immediately obvious.

Employers seeking to hire employees are facing increasing levels of regulation and restriction as to recruiting and hiring practices, and New York City is on the forefront of such regulations. As of May 15, 2022, New York City law will require that employers disclose salary information in job advertisements that are posted for open positions. Rob Szyba, Maria Papasevastos, and Kristie Iacopetta discuss some of the policy considerations driving this new requirement, national trends of similar laws being passed in other jurisdictions, as well as some of the nuances of New York City’s requirements as to what is falls within the law’s definition of a “salary” and which employers are impacted by these requirements.

The New York City Fair Chance Act is one of the most restrictive and complex local laws regulating when and how employers can use criminal history generally and perform criminal background checks on their job applicants and employees. In addition to requiring that criminal history not be mentioned or obtained until after a conditional offer of employment, the law contemplates that employers perform a criminal background check separate from all non-criminal information. In this podcast, we discuss recent amendments to the Fair Chance Act, the nuances of the timing requirements, considerations employers need to contemplate relating to a bifurcated background check process, and some of the practical implications and challenges that exist under the law’s framework.

Food and beverage employers have been struggling with talent shortages, the “great resignation,” and new challenges with compensation and retention. But these challenges do not exist in a vacuum, and oftentimes have a ripple effect that touches on a variety of other legal issues. In this podcast, we discuss a variety of ways that pay equity issues have been implicated as the industry has evolved to keep pace and stay ahead of the curve.