The proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act (“ENDA”) is a federal bill intended to address employment discrimination by making it illegal to fire, refuse to hire or promote employees based upon their sexual orientation. An earlier version of the bill sought to include protection from gender identity discrimination. That provision was stripped…

Recently, two companies, J. Siebold Construction and Finklestein-Morgan, a real estate management firm, agreed to a $1.23 million settlement for violations of the New York overtime law. Apparently, construction workers performing services for the companies for the period October 2002 until August 2006 had not received time and a half…

Last week Congress enacted the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. Among other things, the Act contains a new protection for employees of manufacturers and retailers who do any of the following: (1) provide information to the employer, federal government or attorney general of a state, relating to any…

Last month, New York’s high court in Reddington v. Staten Island University Hospital limited the scope of New York’s Health Care Whistleblower law in response to a question concerning its scope certified by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The law protects employees who “perform health…

Last year, New York State Governor Spitzer signed into effect an amendment to the New York Labor Law by adding section 206-c, the Rights of Nursing Mothers to Express Breast Milk. Applicable to all New York State employers, regardless of size, this law requires that employers make reasonable efforts to…

New York Governor Paterson recently signed the Broadcast Employees Freedom Work Act which restricts employers in the broadcasting industry from conditioning employment on the signing of noncompete agreements. Noncompete agreements restrict an employee’s ability to work for a competitor for a specified period of time following termination of employment. In…

In Peters v. Gilead Securities Inc., the 7th Circuit sent out a warning to employers using employee handbooks, that their provisions may be held legally binding due to the contract liability theory of promissory estoppel. Specifically, the court ruled that although a company may not be subject to the Family…

The House of Representatives, reacting to congressional findings, has passed, 247- 178, the Paycheck Fairness Act– which aims to amend the Fair Labor and Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) to provide more effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex. Reacting to…