Legalization of Recreational Marijuana Use and What it Means for Providers, Webinar, LeadingAge Maryland, November 2022
The Post-COVID (Almost) Economy and Employment Law, Presentation, LeadingAge Maryland, July 2022
Employment Law Update, LeadingAge Maryland's “Stand Up: Employment Law” Conference, July 2022
Employment Law Update, LeadingAge Maryland and LeadingAge DC Annual Conference, May 2022
Taking Your Board to the Next Level, LeadingAge Maryland and LeadingAge DC Annual Conference, May 2022
Shifting Currents in Religious Liberty and Religious Discrimination Claims Under Title VII, Maryland State Bar Association Labor & Employment Law Newsletter, Winter 2022
Vaccine Mandate Requirements, Webinar, LeadingAge Maryland, August 2021
Ask Us Anything! Employees Returning to Work, Webinar, June 2021
Tips for Employers in Navigating the COVID-19 Vaccination Landscape, Webinar, LeadingAge Maryland, March 2021
Recent Legal Developments and Covid-19 Update, Webinar, Association of Electric Cooperatives, February 2020
COVID-19 Vaccination: What’s the Process and What Can You Do?, Webinar, National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association, February 2020
Can Your Association Adopt a COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement?, as featured in Associations Now, February 2021
Employment Law Update: Where we are now, eight months since the lockdowns, LeadingAge Maryland & DC Annual Conference, Virtual, October 2020
Employer Liability in a Post-COVID World, Webinar, Association of TeleServices International, July 2020
Maintaining a Safe and Healthy Business, Webinar, Hunt Valley Business Forum, May 2020
The Work Landscape During COVID-19: What Does Normalcy Resemble?, Webinar, May 2020
Exempting Employees from the Expanded Paid Leave and FMLA Provisions, Webinar, LeadingAge Maryland, April 2020
COVID-19 and Related Issues, Webinar, guest speaker, LeadingAge Maryland, April 2020
Turn and Face the Strain - New PERM Regulations, Maryland Bar Journal, Vol. 38, No. 6, November/December 2005
Limits and License in Rule 35 Examinations, Maryland Bar Journal, Vol. 35, No. 1, January/February 2002
New Technologies, New Liabilities - Employment Law in the Information Age, Maryland Bar Journal, Vol. 33, No. 3, May/June 2000
Enforcing Diversity: Handling Harassment Claims, The Business Monthly, September, 1998
Sexual Harassment: Hostile Environment Claims, Maryland Bar Journal, Vol. 25, No. 4, July/August, 1992
If It Feels Like Harassment, It Probably Is, Legal Times, Vol. XIV, No. 21, October 14, 1991
ARTICLES
February 7, 2024
On February 2, 2024, the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) issued a Final Rule relating to the FY2025 H-1B visa lottery program, set to open for registration next month. The new rule implements a “beneficiary centric” system, that will ensure that each unique beneficiary will be entered into the system only once, regardless of how many employers may submit a registration on the beneficiary’s behalf.
September 25, 2023
A growing number of federal appeals courts are ruling that the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act ("USERRA") requires employers to provide employees on military leave with the “same rights and benefits” as are provided to similarly situated employees on non-military leave.
September 25, 2023
This past June, the Supreme Court issued a decision “clarifying” the test applied to determine when an employer would be justified in refusing a requested religious accommodation. Under Title VII, an employer may not discriminate against an employee or applicant on account of their religion. In regulations issued not long thereafter, the EEOC added its interpretation that this non-discrimination provision also required an employer to “make reasonable accommodations to the religious needs of employees” whenever those accommodations would not work an “undue hardship on the conduct of the employer’s business.” This interpretation was then adopted by Congress when it amended the statute in 1972. The term “religion” was also further defined to include “all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief.”
August 28, 2023
In a decision issued on August 2, 2023, the NLRB overruled existing precedent regarding the lawfulness of employer work rules and policies as articulated in employee handbooks, in favor of a new test which places the burden on employers to justify presumptively unlawful policies by showing that the work rules or policies advance a legitimate and substantial business interest that cannot be achieved by a more narrowly tailored rule.
July 24, 2023
On July 21, 2023, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a new Form I-9 to be used in connection with the verification of employment eligibility. The new form is available for use effective as of August 1, 2023. Employers may continue to use the older version of the Form I-9 (Rev. 10/21/19) through Oct. 31, 2023. After that date, they must use the new form. Use of an older version of the form will subject employers to penalties under Section 274A of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended.
January 11, 2023
On January 5, 2023, The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) proposed a new rule that would ban essentially all non-compete agreements that employers impose on their workers. The notice of proposed rulemaking would deem any non-compete clauses with paid staff and independent contractors, as well as unpaid workers, to be an unfair method of competition that must be rescinded and that employers must tell current and former employees they've stopped enforcement.
October 24, 2022
U.S. trade and professional organizations periodically encounter inquiries from foreign nationals looking for support for a visa application for the United States. The individual is invariably asking for the organization to provide them with a “recommendation” or “opinion” letter to support their O-1 visa application. The inquiry usually raises multiple questions for the organization -- Are we required to provide the letter? What happens if we say yes (or no) to the request? Will the immigration service investigate us if we provide the letter? - and so on. In other cases, the organization is looking more for guidance on how to set limits on such “recommendations,” given that most of the individuals who come to them are not members of the organization.
February 1, 2021
In the coming months, association leaders will need to evaluate a range of legal questions and practical concerns as they consider establishing a COVID-19 vaccination policy for their workplace and events. Here are some of the key issues that any association should consider before implementing a vaccine policy.
December 3, 2020
As COVID-19 vaccines become available, employers will confront the question of whether to mandate such vaccinations for their workforce. This short video walks employers through the various questions they should consider in formulating a policy on vaccinations and some of the legal considerations when doing so.
October 30, 2020
An employee responds to a racially derogatory social media post with a thumbs up. A customer complains that a clerk’s BLM mask is offensive. A tech CEO blasts a political endorsement to the millions of employees of client companies. Each of these scenarios presents an additional challenge to an employer already navigating the difficulties imposed by a once in a generation health crisis, and an increasingly polarized political climate.
April 8, 2020
In light of the current state of affairs surrounding COVID-19, employers are facing challenges not typically encountered in their day-to-day roles. Our Whiteford professionals have addressed questions for our clients in hopes these answers will assist in easing how to deal with this particularly difficult, ever-changing situation.
March 27, 2020
On Friday, March 27th, the House of Representatives passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which was previously passed by the Senate. The wide-ranging statute contains a host of provisions that will be importance to employers, including with respect to low-interest loan programs and other forms of financial relief.
March 18, 2020
On March 18th, the U.S. Senate approved the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which was recently passed by the House of Representatives. The legislation now awaits signature by the President. Among a host of measures relating to health services and other forms of aid, the Act contains two new laws creating employee leave rights that will apply to a broad spectrum of employers. Under the terms of the new statute, these employee leave provisions will take effect within 15 days of the law being enacted. Below is brief overview of the key provisions of those two components of the Act.
February 6, 2020
Board members owe a duty to organization to act in good faith, with due care and loyalty to its interests. They likewise owe the organization confidentiality and must act to protect the organization from claims and liabilities where possible.
October 1, 2019
Recently enacted amendments to Maryland’s anti-discrimination laws go into effect today, October 1, 2019, which will have a wide impact on Maryland employers and their ability to defend against sexual harassment claims.
August 5, 2019
Peter D. Guattery presented a brief webinar on the topic of, "October’s Coming Attractions – Changes to Sexual Harassment Law in Maryland."
June 7, 2019
Peter D. Guattery presented a brief webinar on the topic of, "The Return of the Social Security No-Match Letter," where he addressed what it means and how it impacts your business.
March 22, 2019
You are an employer located in Columbia, Maryland, with a mobile workforce, which travels to client sites around the state and into the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania. One of your employees, who regularly works between sites in Montgomery County and the District needs to be out because his child’s school has been closed by order of the county government. You look to your policies and see that your employee has no more paid vacation leave available, and only one day of sick leave left. Since your policy limits the use of sick leave to only those categories of leave permitted under Maryland law, you tell the employee that he will need to take a day of unpaid leave, because he is not eligible for paid sick leave.
November 16, 2018
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and many similar State civil rights laws, the liability for sexual harassment can vary greatly based on the nature of the claim. The Supreme Court companion cases of Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775 (1998), and Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742 (1998) set out a standard holding an employer strictly liable for instances of sexual harassment by a supervisor, but left open a window, by way of an affirmative defense, where the employee suffered no tangible adverse employment action as a result.
October 25, 2017
On the campaign trail, now President Trump spoke of getting tough on immigration violators – both those unlawfully present in the U.S. and the employers who facilitate their presence here by hiring undocumented workers. Many articles followed as to precisely what this get tough attitude would mean with respect to worksite enforcement, including I-9 compliance, as well as to those employers who currently employ work authorized aliens in lawful status.
September 22, 2017
Effective September 18, 2017, all employers must use Form I-9 with a Revision Date of 7/17/2017 for verification of employment authorization of all newly hired employees. The new form contains minor changes to language on the form, largely renumbers the list of acceptable documents and updates list C documents to include the most current version of a certification or report of birth abroad to the U.S. Department of State.
January 13, 2017
Clients are reminded that as of January 21, 2017, they must use the new Form I-9 for employment verification purposes. Failure to use the new form could result in a potential technical violation of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), which became law in November 1986.
The new form contains a number of additional fields and a set of instructions which, at 15 pages, is more than double that of the prior form. In addition, USCIS has prepared a Smart Form, which may be accessed online, that should greatly aid in correct and thorough completion of the form.
June 9, 2014
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, or “IRCA,” which made it unlawful for employers to hire or continue to employ persons not authorized for employment in the United States is approaching its thirtieth anniversary. The law imposed a requirement on virtually all private employers to verify that each newly hired employee is authorized to accept employment in the United States, and mandates completion of a Form I-9, together with a review of certain specified documentation verifying both identity and work authorization, within the first three days of the employee’s date of hire. Employers who fail to complete the forms, complete them halfway, or make mistakes in entering the required information potentially face civil penalties ranging from $250 to $1100 per violation.
May 22, 2013
On March 8, 2013, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) published a revised Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9, which contains some slight modifications to the familiar form used by employers when verifying the eligibility of newly hired employees to work in the United States. While employers were given a sixty-day grace period to begin using the revised form, as of May 7, 2013, the failure to use the revised form will subject an employer to statutory penalties. This article examines the revisions made to Form I-9.
July 23, 2012
What’s the difference between a volunteer who delivers Meals on Wheels and wouldn’t dream of getting paid, as opposed to an intern who might in fact be deemed an employee and have to be paid? It’s not easy to tell.
January 12, 2012
Worker classification has become a major concern for employers, as governmental agencies have stepped up their efforts to investigate allegations that individuals who are properly considered employees have been misclassified as independent contractors. Recently, the IRS announced a program under which employers may be eligible to reclassify workers as employees at a reduced cost and without the threat of major IRS penalties. This article examines the potential benefits – and pitfalls – associated with the new program and provides an overview of the worker misclassification conundrum.
July 22, 2010
On June 17th, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the National Labor Relations Board was not authorized to issue decisions in pending cases during a twenty-seven month period in which three of its five seats were vacant. The ruling was a victory for the employer in the case, New Process Steel, which had challenged an adverse ruling by the Board. But more significantly, the ruling of the Supreme Court puts into question almost 600 decisions issued by the two-member Board during a period of more than two years.
June 16, 2008
The attached alert has been prepared for general informational purposes only and is not intended as specific legal advice and no legal or business decision should be based solely on its content.
