In August 2017, five individual convenience store franchisees filed suit in federal court for violations of the Massachusetts Independent Contractor Law (Massachusetts ICL), the Massachusetts Wage Act, and the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Law against their franchisor, 7-Eleven, Inc. The franchisees alleged that they, and all other franchisees in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, were employees of 7-Eleven under state law.

On August 26, 2020, the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld a trial court’s decision to order a new trial and vacate a judgment in the asbestos case, Golik v. CBS Corp., 306 Or App 202 (2020). After the jury returned a $3.9 million verdict, the defendant premises owner discovered various bankruptcy form documents, including a work affidavit detailing alternative asbestos exposures, which had not been produced in discovery.

Recently, the Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued four new opinion letters addressing several compliance issues related to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

As the 2020 hurricane season peaks, companies impacted by this year’s hurricanes, including Hurricane Laura, face a host of employment law concerns, including significant challenges maintaining compliance with wage and hour laws. This alert provides general guidance about those issues under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

On September 4, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom approved legislation modifying Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5), California’s worker misclassification law, to allow more individuals to be classified as independent contractors.

Since the COVID-19 crisis began, the New York legal community has been following Governor Cuomo's Executive Orders on a monthly basis with respect to the tolling of legal deadlines due to the statewide emergency caused by the pandemic.

Identical legislation pending in the Pennsylvania Senate (SB 964) and House of Representatives (HB 2725) seeks to amend the definition of “race” in the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act to include “traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles.”