Legal Updates

Conference of Catholic Bishops Issues "Guidance and Options" for Health Care Unionizing

[7/2/2009] Citing concern that neither "Catholic health care, the labor movement, or the Church has been well served by the status-quo with all of its conflict and contention," the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a set of nonbinding guidelines to Catholic health care employers read more »

Drastic Changes to WARN Contemplated in "Forewarn Act" Bill

[7/2/2009] Both houses of Congress have introduced bills that would amend drastically the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, the federal law that requires employers to provide at least 60 calendar days' advance written notice of "plant closings" and "mass layoffs." The proposed "Federal read more »

ICE Sends Over 650 Employers I-9 Audit Notices in Nationwide Immigration Enforcement Initiative

[7/2/2009] Six hundred fifty-two employers throughout the country are receiving I-9 Notice of Inspections (NOIs) from the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit, the Government has announced. ICE is the federal agency responsible for investigating employers read more »

California Supreme Court: No Class Action Requirements for Private Attorneys General Act Claims

[6/30/2009] The California Supreme Court has allowed an employee to proceed with his claim to recover penalties on behalf of himself and non-party employees under the California Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 ("PAGA") without satisfying class certification requirements. read more »

Supreme Court Rules for White Firefighters in Bias Claim

[6/30/2009] In a much-awaited decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the City of New Haven improperly discriminated on the basis of race when it refused to certify the results of a promotional test on which white and Hispanic firefighters outperformed their black colleagues. Ricci read more »

USCIS Releases Updated Information on Filed H-1B Petitions

[6/30/2009] On June 29, 2009, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released updated information on H-1B non-immigrant visa petitions for Fiscal Year 2010 (beginning October 1, 2009), stating that as of June 26, 2009, it has received only 44,800 of the 65,000 H-1B non-immigrant visa petitions read more »

Colorado Noncompete Agreements Require Consideration Beyond Continued Employment

[6/29/2009] In a case of first impression, the Colorado Court of Appeals has concluded that an employer's continued employment of an existing employee does not provide adequate consideration to support an agreement by the employee not to compete. read more »

Employers Can Continue to Use Expiring Version of Form I-9

[6/29/2009] The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS") has announced that the current version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, which is set to expire June 30, 2009, can continue to be used until a new version of the form is issued. read more »

New Labor-Backed Oregon Legislation Probably Preempted by Federal Law

[6/26/2009] Organized labor's primary goal for the 2009 Oregon bi-annual legislative session was to pass a law to bar employers from conducting mandatory meetings or otherwise communicating with employees about an employer's viewpoint on whether employees should unionize. Senate Bill 519 (SB 519) read more »

Supreme Court Rules ADEA Plaintiffs are Not Entitled to "Mixed Motive" Instruction

[6/25/2009] Rejecting the view of many lower courts, the Supreme Court has determined, by a 5-4 vote, that under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), employees alleging disparate treatment must prove that age discrimination was the "but-for" cause of an adverse employment action in order read more »