Perspectives on Labor, Employment & OSHA

Employment arbitration agreements are an important tool for employers who wish to resolve workplace disputes in a more streamline fashion and, more importantly, avoid class and collective actions. However, enforcing arbitration agreements can become challenging and complex, especially when multiple related entities and non-signatories are involved.

ArentFox Schiff is pleased to announce the election of 15 new partners, effective January 1, 2025.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has reinstituted a union-friendly standard for determining whether an employer’s unilateral changes to the terms and conditions of employment violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Going forward, an employer acting unilaterally must show that the union surrendered its right to bargain through a “clear and unmistakable waiver.” This significantly raises the bar employers must clear to act unilaterally, while providing unions with more avenues to challenge employer actions.

ArentFox Schiff’s Rob Carrol, Lynn Fiorentino, Jeffrey Weston, Noah Woo, Brett Young, Alex Rafuse, Marissa Rael, and Sai Paspulati provided an overview of new California employment laws that will go into effect next year, recent regulatory changes, and a recap of noteworthy legal developments this year.

On November 4, 2024, New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed into law the Safe Hotels Act, establishing a licensing requirement for hotels that operate in New York City. The Act requires most new and existing hotels to implement consumer safety and cleanliness protocols, maintain continuous front desk coverage, directly employ certain “core” employees, and train its employees to identify and combat human sex trafficking.

On November 16, New York’s Clean Slate Act took effect. The purpose of the Act is to aid in curbing discrimination in the workplace against individuals with certain New York State criminal convictions. As discussed below, the Act will limit the types of criminal convictions that employers can access and dictates how they must handle the information that they are made aware of when considering it in connection with employment actions, such as hiring or continued employment.

In Rodriguez v. Lawrence Equipment, Inc., Case No. B325261 (Nov. 8, 2024), the California Court of Appeal held that an employee who loses their Labor Code claims in an individual arbitration no longer has standing to pursue a claim on behalf of others in court under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA).

Employers wanting to create a more equitable and legally compliant workplace while also reducing their risk of litigation may want to pay particular attention to the California Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Wawrzenski.

ArentFox Schiff has been nationally recognized with 35 top rankings in the 2025 edition of Best Law Firms®, which honors firms for professional excellence based on consistently positive ratings from clients and peers.

AFS successfully represented Sutil Group, a leading Chilean agricultural business group, in the acquisition of California-based Sunshine Raisin Corporation, one of the top processors of premium-quality dried fruits in the United States.

Effective November 21, Massachusetts employees will be permitted to use their sick time to “address the employee’s own physical and mental health needs, and those of their spouse, if the employee or the employee’s spouse experiences pregnancy loss or a failed assisted reproduction.”

On September 30, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law SB 399, the “California Worker Freedom from Employer Intimidation Act.”

In a rare positive decision for employers in Massachusetts, one of the Commonwealth’s district appellate courts held that a retention bonus is not a wage under the Massachusetts “Wage Act” (G.L. c. 149, § 148).

On August 28, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division, which enforces the US antitrust laws including the Sherman Act and Clayton Act, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that they entered into a Memorandum of Understanding on Labor Issues in Merger Investigations (MOU).

Earlier this year, Governor Wes Moore signed into law two statutes — the Wage Range Transparency Law and the Pay Stub Information Law — that significantly increase the compensation details that Maryland employers must communicate to job applicants and employees.

ArentFox Schiff is pleased to announce that 135 attorneys have been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America 2025, with two attorneys highlighted as “Lawyers of the Year” and 70 attorneys listed as “Ones to Watch.”

ArentFox Schiff is pleased to announce that Partners Rob Carrol and Morgan Forsey have been named among the 2024 “Top Labor & Employment Attorneys in California” by Daily Journal, the state’s premier legal publication.

It is not news that employees “hang out” and socialize “outside of work” through social media platforms. While these platforms provide outlets for employees to express themselves, bond, chat, joke, and share vacation photos, these sites can also be used to harass, threaten, and harm employees.

Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court, in an 8-1 decision in Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney, adopted a more restrictive test for evaluating requests for injunctive relief under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act in order to maintain the status quo during the pendency of unfair labor practice (ULP) proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

On July 24, the Massachusetts Legislature passed legislation that will impact many Massachusetts employers in terms of their “pay transparency practices” for current employees and future applicants.

In a recent opinion, Smith et al. v. UnitedHealth Group Inc. et al., the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) class action suit brought by health plan participants.

Forty years ago, the US Supreme Court’s decision in Chevron USA, Inc. v. National Resources Defense Council, 46 US 837 (1984), upended administrative law practice. In brief, that case, for which the “Chevron doctrine” is named, instructed courts to defer to an implementing agency’s reasonable interpretation of statutes under its purview. Chevron mandated a two-step process when interpreting such statutes.

This month in Pettiford v. Branded Management Group, LLC, the Massachusetts Appeals Court took a novel approach to vicarious liability, holding that the failure of a restaurant’s employees to stop the allegedly racist actions of a wayward cook created grounds for the company’s potential liability.

Employers supplementing their workforce with temporary workers may be out of luck if they wish to rely on arbitration agreements between the temporary helper and the staffing provider.

If you’ve managed a workforce during a union organizing campaign, you’re likely familiar with captive audience meetings; compulsory sessions at which managers try to persuade employees to reject the union.