The DuPage County Car Association is hosting Hot Topics in Employment Law: The Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic, a webinar presented by Chicago associate Jenee Gaskin and Yolanda Carrillo from the Illinois Department of Labor Thursday, February 18th at 12pm CST.

Charles G. Meyer III and Amanda J. Muehlhausen will speak at ATSSA’s 51st Annual Convention & Traffic Expo on the increasing movement of states to legalize marijuana and decriminalize other controlled substances, employers face increasing liability from employment-related claims in the workplace.

On January 11, 2021, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser signed into law one of the strictest bans on non-compete agreements in the United States. Under the new law, titled the “Ban on Non-Compete Agreements Amendment Act of 2020,” non-compete agreements entered into on or after the law’s effective date will be considered void.

Meet our newest partner in the Orange County office, Gouya Ranekouhi! Gouya has been with the Labor & Employment litigation team at O’Hagan Meyer since July 2018.

This past November, the O’Hagan Meyer Diversity and Inclusion Community Outreach Action Team recognized the growing hunger rate across the country and responded by organizing a firm-wide food drive across all offices.

The Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final rule clarifying the standard for determining independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Once again, the DOL has reaffirmed the “economic reality” test as the benchmark for determining whether a worker should be treated as an employee or independent contractor.

With the recent approval of COVID-19 vaccines and anticipated rollout of inoculations nationwide, employers have begun to ask for guidance regarding whether they can compel employees to receive the vaccinations. On December 16, 2020, the EEOC released guidance confirming that employers may require their employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19 before returning to work.

As the pandemic forces our lives and livelihoods online, expect 2021 to be a hotbed of data privacy litigation and legislation. California expands legislation (CCPA and CPRA) to strengthen protections against the exposure and sale of personal information online. Other states are likely to follow suit in the decade to come.

Companies are putting pressure on their human resources departments and recruitment programs to ramp up the diversity of their workforce.  Before charging forward, it is best to pause to review the permissibility and effectiveness of recruiting programs, employment tests, and selection procedures. 

This month, Richmond partner Bob Yates is the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys spotlighted member.