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
Religious Discrimination and Undue Hardship
Religious discrimination in the workplace violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Employers must, for the most part, accommodate employees concerning their religious practices in regards to the following:
Flexible scheduling
Voluntary shift swaps or substitutions
Job reassignments
Modifications to workplace policies or practices
If a worker has to take day off for religious observance, the employer should make accommodations. Certain dress codes or grooming policies may need to be relaxed for wearing a Jewish yarmulke or Muslim headscarf, or for beards and long hair (Rastafarian dreadlocks or Sikh).
National Origin and Race Discrimination and Retaliation: EEOC Sues Long Island Company
Claims of national origin and race discrimination along with retaliation were the basis of an EEOC lawsuit brought against a Long Island Company headquartered in Massapequa, NY in August 2017.
A&F Fire Protection Co, Inc. is a sprinkler installation company that allegedly violated federal law by allowing a hostile work environment where black and Hispanic employees were routinely subjected to racial insults.
Details of the National Origin and Race Discrimination Allegations
New York City Faces Lawsuit for Trying to Enforce Menu Labeling Law
Although the federal menu labeling law was passed as part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, it has been stopped from going into effect several times. It was originally going to become effective in 2016. When the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) postponed menu labeling for a year in May 2017, the new date for it to go into effect was established as May 7, 2018.
Despite the federal delay, Restaurant.org reported that the New York City government intended to go ahead and enforce the labeling law anyway, and enforcement would begin on August 21, 2017.
Should You Have an Arbitration Clause in Your Employment Contract?
There is a reason that arbitration has gained a foothold in business disputes over the past 20 years, whether between employees and employers or between businesses.
The Advantages of Arbitration
Arbitration offers business owners advantages as a means of dispute resolution including the following:
Lower costs. Generally, arbitration is less expensive than litigation.
Faster resolutions. Nolo reports that a recent study done by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services that the average time for an arbitrated case to resolve is 475 days from filing. In contrast, the average litigated case takes 18 months to three years.
NYC New Job Salary History Law: Keeping Your Hiring Practices Legal
A New York City job salary history law was recently passed, which goes into effect in October 2017. Business owners should be aware of this fact and ensure they keep their hiring practices in lockstep with the new change. CNN Money reported that employers no longer...