By Helen D. (Heidi) Reavis In her latest article for Ars Technica, RPJ’s Helen D. (Heidi) Reavis highlights the potential legal risks inherent in Amazon’s new return-to-office (RTO) mandate. This significant policy shift by one of the nation’s largest employers, moving away from its current hybrid model permitting remote work...
Recently, in Rajaram v. Meta Platforms, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that 42 U.S.C. § 1981 bars discrimination against U.S. citizens in hiring decisions when such decisions are made on the basis of their U.S. citizenship. The holding directly conflicts with a prior federal...
I recently have been involved in a labor arbitration where a local union of employees at a federal penitentiary successfully challenged the Bureau of Prisons’ discriminatory policy of excluding females from two posts because they might see a male inmate unclothed. The Arbitrator bifurcated the hearing so that the union,...
As the economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic keeps mounting, and employers try to make decisions about how to keep their balance sheets—and those of their employees—in the black, pay cuts to all ranks are becoming standard protocol. Certain companies have chosen to introduce pay cuts for those at the...
RPJ Partner Alice K. Jump was quoted Law360's April 22 article entitled, “Legal Pitfalls Loom for Employers Reopening Post-Pandemic.” The article was published on Law360's website, and as the lead story in its Employment and Corporate newsletter, and covers the legal dangers and logistical challenges faced by employers as states begin to...
After building up laws against sexual harassment in 2018, in 2019 New York State enacted additional legislation that further clarified and expanded protections available to workers under the New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL), as we previously discussed in this article. A number of the new requirements took effect in...
On December 23, MarketWatch published an article discussing some of the biggest legal changes coming to employers and employees in 2020. In “Where U.S. Workers Will See Minimum Wage Increases and Paid Family Leave in 2020,” reporter Andrew Keshner highlights the new 12-week paid family leave law for federal workers...
RPJ is excited to announce the publication of two new books with contributions from our team! The long-awaited Wiley Handbook on the Aging Mind and Brain, published in March by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., includes a credited chapter written by RPJ Partner Helen Diana "Heidi" Reavis with Alison Roh Park...