It’s no secret that non-compete agreements have recently come under greater scrutiny by the federal government.  In July 2021, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order on “Promoting Competition in the American Economy” that, among other things, directed the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) to consider curtailing the use of non-compete agreements.  Then, in January

Whether two entities are “joint employers” is an important question under the National Labor Relations Act.  Consider Company A, which contracts with Company B, a staffing company, to provide maintenance or other services at Company A’s facility.  The maintenance workers are employed directly by Company B.  While working at Company A’s facility, Company B’s employees

On December 17, 2021, a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit dissolved the stay of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (“OSHA”) COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”) that had previously been issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.  We summarized the

On November 5, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) published its much-anticipated COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”) requiring, among other things, that most employees of companies with 100 or more employees submit to weekly COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering while at work indoors. We summarized the ETS in

On July 9, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a sweeping Executive Order on “Promoting Competition in the American Economy”.  The Executive Order includes 72 initiatives by more than a dozen federal agencies to address perceived competition problems across the U.S. economy, and signals increased enforcement of the antitrust laws in multiple industries (including agriculture, finance,

On December 21, 2020, Congress passed a $900 billion coronavirus relief bill (“relief bill”) as part of a broader spending bill for fiscal year 2021.  President Trump signed the relief bill on December 27, 2020.  In anticipation of any coronavirus relief, employers and HR professionals have been asking whether Congress would extend mandatory paid leave