Articles and Blogs

A concern for many workers today is the student loan burden they carry. Many employees, both young and old, are paying off large student loan balances rolled up in pursuing undergraduate and graduate college degrees. As the cost of college education continues to increase at rates that surpass the general inflation rate in the... READ MORE

The hope and promise of alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) processes is that they will resolve disputes more efficiently and with less expense than litigation. But, when the parties cannot achieve a negotiated settlement and turn to arbitration, they find that standard arbitration, which allows discovery and motions, is not nearly as simple and inexpensive... READ MORE

In the restaurant industry, it’s pretty common for fast food and sandwich shop operators—think Wendy’s, Chick-fil-A, Subway, etc.—to run their companies based on a franchise model. Under this model, which is somewhat analogous to a large corporation that has a main “corporate office” and satellite locations scattered around the country, the franchisor owns the... READ MORE

The adjudicators who review employer submitted immigration petitions such as H-1B’s and I-140’s will soon have more discretion available to deny those petitions. Health care employers will be specifically affected by this change as about 25 percent of all physicians practicing or training in the United States are foreign born. On July 13, 2018,... READ MORE

A recent federal appeals court decision reminds us that employees can bring sexual harassment claims based on the conduct of non-employees, including patients. A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reminds us of that risk. The Facts and Allegations In Gardner v. CLC of Pascagoula, LLC, a nursing... READ MORE

A multi-facility health care employer, with subsidiary facilities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, has been named in a class/collective action lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania federal court for allegedly failing to pay its employees adequate overtime under both federal and state wage and hour laws. Plaintiff’s Allegations The plaintiff, a non-exempt (i.e., hourly) medical lab... READ MORE

As pointed out in prior blog posts—see, for example, this post from 2017 and this 2018 blog post—with the recent #MeToo movement and the sexual harassment allegations that continue to garner media coverage on a national platform, employers across the country should be taking proactive steps to curb sexual harassment and incivility in the... READ MORE

Employers increasingly understand millennials are graduating from college with heavy debt loads from student loans. The Pew Research Center reported last August that 37 percent of adults under the age of 30 have student loan debt. For young adults with a bachelor’s degree or greater, the portion with outstanding student loans rises to 53 percent.... READ MORE

For years, we have reported on the multitude of decisions from the Board striking down employer handbook rules. Many of these decisions were based on a standard set forth in the Lutheran Heritage case, which provided, in part, that a rule or policy maintained by an employer is unlawful if “employees would reasonably construe... READ MORE

In happy news for the health care industry, OFCCP recently announced a two-year extension of its TRICARE enforcement moratorium. The agency’s self-initiated enforcement moratorium, which has been in effect for four years, is now scheduled to expire on May 7, 2021. OFCCP also expanded the scope of the moratorium to apply to providers under the... READ MORE