Compliance Stuff

Colorado lawmakers have completed their hotly anticipated rewriting of the state’s landmark artificial intelligence (AI) law . While the new law shifts compliance from a risk-based to a transparency-based approach, it maintains significant notice-and-disclosure obligations for employers (referred to as “deployers” in the law), requiring them to disclose to employees and job applicants when an AI tool was used to make an adverse employment decision. Quick Hits SB 26-189, Colorado’s new law “concerning the use of automated decision-making technology in consequential decisions,” mandates that employers disclose the use of “automated decision-making technology” (ADMT) when making adverse employment decisions. The law replaces the original Colorado Artificial Intelligence Act with a focus on specific notice and recordkeeping obligations for employers starting January 1, 2027. Employers must provide a clear pre-use notice of ADMT’s application and provide a disclosure to employees or job app...

The Maine Legislature recently passed a bill that could soon place new limits on employers’ ability to conduct surveillance in the workplace and create new categories of enforcement action state labor officials. Due to the bill’s late passage, the Legislature’s adjournment, and parliamentary rules, LD 61 will sit on the Governor’s desk until the next legislative session convenes in January. If Governor Mills does not veto the legislation within the first three days of that session, it will automatically become law and take effect 90 days after the conclusion of the next session – in approximately the late summer or early fall of 2026. While it awaits the Governor’s action, employers should plan for possible impacts on their operations and policies. What the New Surveillance Law Would Do LD 61 would prohibit employers from electronically monitoring employees without providing prior notice. Surveillance under the law includes monitoring through electronic devices or systems. However, it...

Earlier this year, we covered Assembly Bill 2499, a significant new law expanding workplace protections for victims of crime. As of January 1, 2025, California employers have several new obligations—including providing written notice to employees about their rights under this law.  (The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) will issue the notice by July 1, 2025.) Here’s what you need to know in the meantime. Who’s Covered AB 2499 broadened the definition of “victim” to include anyone subjected to a qualifying act of violence, not just domestic violence or stalking. Under the law: Employees who are victims of crime may take time off to protect their health, safety, or welfare—or that of their child. Employers with 25 or more employees must offer these same protections when a family member of an employee is the victim. When and How to Notify Employers must provide the written notice: At time of hire Annually Upon request If an employee discloses they or their family member is a cr...

  In a   January 2, 2025 decision in  CompassCare et al. v. Hochul , a Second Circuit panel vacated a permanent injunction issued in April 2022 that halted the requirement that New York State employers include a notice in their employee handbooks regarding the prohibition on discrimination based on reproductive health care choices.  As a result, employers statewide will once again be required to include such notice in their handbooks. Background The notice requirement,  which first took effect in November 2019 , was part of a broader amendment to the New York Labor Law adding a new Section 203-e prohibiting employers from accessing information on employees’ or their dependents’ reproductive health without prior consent, as well as generally prohibiting discrimination and retaliation against an employee “because of or on the basis of the employee’s or dependent’s reproductive health decision making, including but not limited to, a decision to use or access a part...