Compliance Stuff

With layoffs trending upward in industries like manufacturing, business services, and transportation, it’s important to be aware of the legal requirements surrounding mass business closures or worker terminations. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires employers to provide advance notice to employees of certain plant closings and mass layoffs with limited exceptions. But the law has very specific requirements about the information you need to provide, when to provide it, and which employees you need to notify when engaging in major workforce reductions. Here’s everything that may surprise you when it comes to plant closures and large-scale terminations – and your 4-step plan to comply with the WARN Act. Does WARN Apply to My Business? The WARN Act can be triggered in several ways based on the number of impacted employees and under certain conditions. Generally, the law requires that during any 90-day period, private businesses with more than 100 full-time...

On September 4, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio concluded that the workday starts when remote call center workers begin operating a program or application they use as part of the principal work activities they are employed to perform, not when they first engage their computers . This ruling, in Lott v. Recker Consulting LLC, supports arguments that the compensable workday in remote call center environments is shorter than the time elapsed between boot-up and boot-down . Quick Hits In  Lott v. Recker Consulting LLC , a “boot-up time” case, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio ruled that compensable time begins for remote call center workers when they start operating programs that are integral to their work . Likewise, compensable time ends when the worker closes the last program. The court found that turning on a computer, typing in usernames and passwords, and opening applications are preliminary activities and not compensable t...

With so many employees working remotely these days, it can be confusing to determine which state they actually work from – and which laws apply to the employment relationship. Is their home office in a different state than the corporate office they report to? Does the employee travel between locations? The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently grappled with these questions under the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) and found that an employee who did not reside or work in Minnesota was  not  protected by the state law . In an April 9 decision, the court said remote work coupled with occasional business travel to Minnesota is  not sufficient  to be classified as working within the state under the MHRA . Here’s what employers with remote staff should know about the ruling in  Kuklenski v. Medtronic USA , what it means for Minnesota businesses, and how it might influence your policies and practices in other states.    What Happened? Taking a deep di...

Working from home has become the new norm for many workers. Even before COVID-19 forced businesses to send their employees home, there were around 4 million Americans who worked remotely for at least half of the week. In addition, many companies now see remote or hybrid work as a benefit to attracting and retaining workplace talent. This article covers: Payroll requirements Foreign qualification Permits for your remote employees Tax nexus considerations Classification of remote workers Privacy and data security Workers compensation Unemployment insurance Hybrid employees Properly document working arrangements But there may be additional compliance requirements when an employee works outside a business’ home state. With remote workers, there may be tax implications, new registration requirements, and more. Unfortunately, such considerations are sometimes a surprise to employers who don’t have an HR department or lack an understanding of the implications of having remote employees. Here...