New York Blog — Employment Defense
Labor and Employment Defense
Welcome to the NYC Employment Law Blog! This blog is an online publication of Stephen D. Hans & Associates, P.C., a New York City law firm that has been representing small and mid-sized businesses throughout the New York metropolitan area in all types of employment and labor law matters for over thirty years. We hope this blog will be an interesting and informative resource for our readers, whether they are current or past clients, or simply compliance-minded business owners looking for ways to stay up-to-date with the ever-changing employment law landscape. To that end, we will endeavor to offer regular blog posts highlighting legislative developments, significant court and agency decisions and noteworthy news stories from the employment and labor law realm. We hope that as a reader you will find ours blog enlightening, useful and above all, interesting.
If you are the owner of a small or mid-sized business in New York State and have questions regarding any of our blog posts, or if you would like to consult with us regarding any employment or labor law issues, please feel free to give us a call at (718) 275-6700 or contact us online to schedule an in-person consultation at our offices.
Thank you for visiting our blog and we hope that you check back often!
Sincerely,
Stephen D. Hans & Associates, P.C.
Blogs
FAQs About Lactation Break Law
What NY Employers Should Know
New York City passed a law for lactation breaks that requires NYC employers to provide a private lactation room and a refrigerator where nursing mothers can store milk. The new law goes into effect on March 18, 2019.
Prior to this New York City law, the Affordable Care Act of 2010 introduced a provision that required employers to allow nursing mothers to take a break for breast pumping.
What businesses does the lactation break law apply to?
Employers: What Questions Should You Avoid in a Job Interview? Illegal and Discriminatory Questions
Certain questions are taboo for employers to ask in a job interview. The most obvious ones are questions that could be regarded as discrimination. If you ask these types of questions, you could be held liable if a discrimination lawsuit is brought against you.
Do not ask questions that intimate at anything to do with age, race, color, national origin or birthplace, religion, disability, genetic information, gender/sex or marital/family status/pregnancy. (EEOC)
How Does the New York State Overtime Salary Threshold Work?
How Does the New York State Overtime Salary Threshold Work?
2019 Is Here with New Salary Thresholds
The New York State overtime salary threshold draws the line between exempt salaried workers, who must be paid for overtime, and those non-exempt workers, who do not have to be paid for overtime.
A Look Back on Sexual Harassment Charges in 2018
EEOC Sexual Harassment Charges Statistics Surged
The increase in sexual harassment lawsuits brought by the EEOC was 50 percent higher in 2018 than they were in 2017. The EEOC filed 66 harassment lawsuits, and of those, 41 involved allegations of sexual harassment.
New charges filed with the EEOC that alleged sexual harassment were more than 7,500, which was 12 percent higher than in 2017.
A New NLRB Roadmap for Employee Handbooks
What Are the Current NLRB Handbook Guidelines for Employers?
Through a number of legal cases, including the 2004 Lutheran Heritage decision and later decisions, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) deemed certain employee handbook rules as unlawful. They adjudicated that they were in violation of employees Section 7 rights (right to self-organize and right to collective bargaining).
As a result, for a number of years workplace rules established by employers came under scrutiny and more harsh restrictions.
However, the NLRB MEMORANDUM GC 18-04, released on June 15, 2018, restored commonplace rules that previously were under attack.