Compliance Stuff

Jackson Lewis Principal and Board Member Tanya Bovée interviewed U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Commissioner Andrea Lucas at Jackson Lewis’ Workplace Horizons conference in Las Vegas on April 17, 2024. Andrea Lucas has served as a Commissioner on the EEOC since 2020. As part of her work educating employers, employees, and other stakeholders about the laws the EEOC enforces, Commissioner Lucas writes and speaks frequently about hot topics and emerging issues in employment law, including on corporate diversity programs; religious discrimination, accommodation, and inclusion; accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions; and disability accommodations . Before her appointment to the EEOC, Commissioner Lucas was a member of the labor and employment and litigation practice groups of Gibson Dunn and was based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. Stressing that she spoke on her own behalf and was not communicating official EEOC policy, Commiss...

  A Summary Plan Description, often referred to as an “SPD”, is a document intended to clearly describe and explain the important provisions of an employee benefit plan. The SPD must be written in such a way that the average employee will understand the benefits, rights and rules of the plan. The SPD must include items such as the name of the plan, the address of the plan sponsor, the type of plan, the type of plan administration, a description of the participation and eligibility requirements, and a description of the benefits provided under the plan. This list is not exhaustive, but is included to provide guidance as to the type of information that is required content for an SPD. T he Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) imposes strict deadlines with regard to when an SPD must be provided to participants and beneficiaries. ERISA also imposes a timeline for regular updates and required restatements of an SPD. We have included a brief overview of those rules b...

  On July 24, 2024, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Hon. Pedro Pierluisi, signed into law Senate Bill 1282, the   Law Against Discrimination Based on Hair Styles . This law adopts as public policy the express prohibition of discrimination in the offering of public services, employment, education, and housing, in the public and private sectors, based on individuals’   protective hairstyles   or hair textures, which are regularly associated with a particular race and national origin identities. The phrase   protective hairstyles   is defined by the law as those hairstyles used to maintain curly hair into its natural style including, but not limited to, rolls or tight curls, locs, glued braids, twists, cornrows, Bantu knots and afros. This law also amends several statutes such as the  Puerto Rico Public Service Relations Act , PR Act No. 45-1998;  Law for the Administration and Transformation of the Human Resources in the Government of Puerto Rico , P...

  Quick Hits Cal/OSHA’s heat illness prevention regulation moved quickly from approval to implementation in a shorter time period than normal and took effect on July 23, 2024. The rule contains requirements for indoor heat illness training, trigger points of 82°F and 87°F, requirements for administrative and engineering controls, procedures for the provision of water and access to cool-down areas, procedures for acclimatization, and requirements for emergency response procedures. Cal/OSHA can now begin indoor heat illness inspections based on the new regulation. On June 20, 2024, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted unanimously to adopt a proposed version of Title 8 CCR § 3396, “ Heat Illness Prevention in Indoor Places of Employment ,” after a  prior attempt  at passing a proposed indoor heat regulation failed. The regulation was then submitted to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) for review. According to Cal/OSHA, OAL approved the reg...

 Every four years, a U.S. presidential election brings voters to an intersection where they decide whether to turn right or left. Halting at these intersections often brings heightened tension and polarizing discourse within our workplaces and society. Taking proactive measures to ensure the safety and well-being of employees and providing an environment conducive to effective collaboration among employees can help prevent fraught work environments from forming. Here are some practical procedures that employers may want to consider implementing throughout standard day-to-day operations, before and after an election, to efficiently navigate establishing ground rules and policies, fostering environments of open dialogue, and providing support. Quick Hits Research shows that there can be a decline in job performance after an election, due to employees who experience strain and distraction. Employers can take several proactive steps to maintain productivity and a supportive work envir...

 On January 1, 2024, Congress enacted the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”) as part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 and its annual National Defense Authorization Act.  Every entity that meets the definition of a “reporting company” under the CTA and does not qualify for an exemption must file a beneficial ownership information report (a “BOI Report”) with the US Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”). Reporting companies include any entity that is created by the filing of a document with a secretary of state or any similar office under the law of a state or Indian tribe (this includes corporations, LLCs, and limited partnerships).  In most circumstances, a reporting company only has to file an initial BOI Report to comply with the CTA's reporting requirements. However, when the required information reported by an individual or reporting company changes after a BOI Report has been filed or when either discovers that the ...

Many business leaders celebrated the Supreme Court’s recent landmark ruling that offers a powerful new tool to fight back against regulatory agencies – but are hidden dangers lurking beneath this apparent victory? While the Loper Bright decision will no doubt have a broad impact on business operations and especially workplace law, t he end of the decades-old Chevron doctrine could come at a cost . Here are four reasons this victory might fall short of the hype for employers. Quick Background: SCOTUS Strips Power From Federal Agencies For 40 years, the Supreme Court required courts to routinely defer to an agency’s “reasonable” interpretation of ambiguous provisions in federal law, providing federal agencies (and the White House) a powerful instrument to shape the law as they saw fit . This deference allowed agencies to issue rules, regulations, and guidance that carved new paths that were not always anticipated by congress or the general public. But the 2024 Supreme Court term saw SCOT...

  Business email compromise (“BEC”) occurs when a payee’s business email account is compromised or impersonated. The threat actor, posing as the payee or its representative (e.g., the head of the accounting department), sends alternate wire or ACH instructions, causing the payor to direct an otherwise planned payment to an account unassociated with the intended payee. By the time the intended payee inquires about its nonreceipt of funds, the threat actor has already redirected funds from the recipient account, leaving the payor “out” the payment but the intended payee without compensation. Although there is a relative dearth of case law addressing which party should bear the loss under this fact pattern, two divergent approaches have emerged. The Imposter Rule The first approach, adopted by most of the courts that have examined this issue, is to apply the “Imposter Rule” from Article 3 of the Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”). 1  Although Article 3 addresses third-party fraud in...