Compliance Stuff

Takeaways The potential for expanded use of National Guard and Reserve forces makes USERRA compliance for employers critical. USERRA’s broad, mandatory protections for employees include military leave and some benefits continuation.  With strict bans on discrimination or retaliation tied to past, current or future military service, employers’ proactive policy review and manager training are essential. Article The recent United States military engagement in the Middle East, as well as significant domestic deployments in multiple large cities in 2025 and 2026, underscores the increasing reliance on National Guard and Reserve forces. Recruitment trends indicate an expanded operational role with nearly 50,000 National Guard enlistees added in 2025 . At this time, understanding employers’ compliance obligations under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) is more important than ever. USERRA guarantees the rights of military service members to take a leave...

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used by employers to support employee performance management . While AI has the potential to improve talent matching and expand opportunities for growth, it raises significant legal and compliance considerations that employers must take into account before deploying. This Insight will provide an overview of the ways in which you can use AI for performance management, summarize the inherent risks, and provide a list of steps you can take to address that risk. How AI Performance Management Can Boost Your Workplace Qualified employees frequently self-select out of roles they could succeed in because they are scared away by the overly long and all-encompassing job descriptions listing excessive qualifications they don’t believe they can meet. Still others pursue positions misaligned with their actual capabilities, creating frustration for employer and employee alike. AI-driven skills analysis offers a different approach. Instead of focusing on...

In a significant win for businesses fighting CIPA claims, a California federal court just held that searching sensitive health terms and distributing that information to third parties is not a legally protectable privacy interest, foreclosing a plaintiff from pursuing a class action lawsuit. Although the court allowed the plaintiff to amend his complaint and fix its deficiencies, the February 23 decision marks a significant shift in evaluating a plaintiff’s so-called injuries in these cases. Rather than accepting plaintiff’s threadbare allegations of harm, the court in  Maghoney v. Dotdash Meredith Inc.  dug into the allegations of the complaint and questioned whether the plaintiff had actually alleged awareness that his information had been shared with third parties and whether any data shared could have been associated with his name or other personally identifiable information. Here is what you need to know to use this decision to successfully defend against CIPA lawsuits, ...

The National Labor Relation Board’s (“NLRB”) joint-employer standard has swung back and forth for nearly a decade, with the newly-appointed Trump NLRB most recently releasing a  final rule  reinstating the 2020 joint employer standard. For private California employers – especially those using staffing agencies, subcontractors, franchise models, or management agreements – the rule determines who can be included in a bargaining unit and who may be liable under a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) . Here’s where things stand and why it matters. The Back-and-Forth History Pre-2015 : The NLRB required  substantial, direct, and immediate control  over essential employment terms to find joint-employer status. 2015 –  Browning-Ferris  Expansion : The Board broadened the test to include  indirect control or even reserved (but unexercised) authority , dramatically increasing joint-employer exposure. 2020 Rule : The Board formally adopted a narrower, employer-...

On January 17, Governor Phil Murphy signed a bill into law ( A3451/S2950 ) that significantly amends the New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA). The new rules, which take effect on July 17, 2026, will expand the employers covered under the NJFLA and the employees eligible for job-protected leave. The new law also amends the Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) and Family Leave Insurance (FLI) laws to provide job protection for individuals receiving these benefits. Previously, the TDI and FLI laws provided for wage replacement benefits but did not guarantee reinstatement. Current NJFLA Requirements Employer Obligations:  Under the current NJFLA, employers with 30 or more employees (including out-of-state employees) must provide eligible employees up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave during a 24-month period for the following reasons: To care for or bond with a child, as long as the leave begins within one year of the child’s birth or placement for adoption or foster care; To care for ...