Now that we’re nearly half-way via 2023, it’s time once more to overview the developments in state and native labor and employment legal guidelines. State legislatures and metropolis councils proceed to be very busy making new legal guidelines and amending present legal guidelines. Actually, as a result of massive variety of updates, we’re splitting our submit into two elements. At present’s replace covers Arkansas via Montana. Half two, with updates for the remaining states (New Jersey via Washington), will likely be posted later this week.
Arkansas
- The Arkansas CROWN Act amends the State’s Civil Rights Act by clarifying that race and nationwide origin discrimination contains discrimination “on account of a pure, protecting, or cultural coiffure.” Protected hairstyles underneath the Act embrace “afros, dreadlocks, twists, locs, braids, cornrow braids, Bantu knots, curls, and hair styled to guard hair texture or for cultural significance.” The amendments are anticipated to take impact July 31, 2023.
California
- Ninth Circuit Strikes Down A.B. 51 – In an opinion issued February 15, 2023, the Ninth Circuit struck down a California regulation (A.B. 51), which made it a prison offense for an employer to require an worker or applicant to comply with an arbitration provision as a situation of employment. The Court docket held that A.B. 51 was preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act. For background on A.B. 51 and the Ninth Circuit’s opinion, see right here.
- San Francisco Non-public Sector Army Go away Pay – Below the ordinance, which went into impact February 20, 2023, personal sector employers with 100 or extra staff should pay staff on army depart the distinction between their gross army pay and the gross pay they’d have obtained had they labored their common work schedule, for as much as 30 days in a calendar yr.
Colorado
- Denver Adopts Civil Wage Theft Ordinance and Implementing Guidelines – On January 9, 2023, the Denver Metropolis Council handed a brand new civil wage theft ordinance, which Denver Mayor Michael Hancock signed into regulation the next day. Below the ordinance, Denver staff now have three years to file a wage theft criticism with the Metropolis Auditor, who is allowed to order a wide range of cures for wage theft violations together with cost of withheld wages, treble damages, job reinstatement, and a superb of as much as $25,000. Notably, the ordinance authorizes the Auditor to implement violations “up the chain” by holding an employer and some other entity that has instantly or not directly contracted for labor collectively and severally accountable for wage theft violations. The Auditor’s Workplace lately introduced new guidelines implementing the ordinance which, amongst different issues, clarify the ordinance’s “up the chain” legal responsibility and anti-retaliation provisions.
Connecticut
Delaware
- On April 21, 2023, Delaware Governor John Carney introduced that he would enable two payments governing the legalization and regulation of marijuana to grow to be regulation with out his signature. Efficient April 23, 2023, H.B. 1 removes all state-level civil and prison penalties for the use or possession of 1 ounce or much less of marijuana, making Delaware the twenty second state to legalize leisure marijuana. H.B. 2 implements H.B. 1 and went into impact on April 27, 2023. Of observe for employers, H.B. 2 states that the brand new legal guidelines usually are not supposed to “impression or impose any requirement or restriction . . . with respect to phrases and circumstances of employment.” Employers shouldn’t have to accommodate marijuana use and should still self-discipline staff for marijuana-related infractions and optimistic drug assessments, supplied the worker doesn’t have a medical marijuana card.
District of Columbia
- D.C. joins the rising variety of states which have enacted automated record-clearing reduction for arrest information and different non-convictions. The Second Probability Modification Act of 2022 (D.C. Legislation 24-284) is likely one of the broadest record-clearing legal guidelines within the nation, together with each petition-based reduction for all however probably the most severe violent felony convictions, and automated reduction for misdemeanors and non‑conviction information. The regulation makes sealing automated starting in 2027 for non‑conviction information, and for many misdemeanor convictions after a 10-year ready interval. It additionally offers for automated expungement of marijuana convictions efficient January 1, 2025, and for expungement by petition on grounds of precise innocence.
Florida
- Below S.B. 1718, efficient July 1, 2023, employers with greater than 25 staff in Florida are required to make use of E-Confirm to examine new worker employment eligibility. Violators could also be required to repay financial improvement incentives or might have their licenses revoked. The regulation additionally invalidates driver licenses issued to immigrants missing everlasting authorized standing issued in different states and requires hospitals to gather immigration standing information.
Georgia
- Georgia has expanded worker rights for voting depart. Beforehand, staff had been solely entitled to 2 hours of time without work on main or election day, and such depart was not out there if the worker had two hours to vote earlier than or after their shift ended. With the passage of S.B. 129, efficient July 1, 2023, depart is now out there to staff on the times designed for advance in-person voting, and depart is offered to all staff, even those that might have time earlier than or after their shift to vote.
Illinois
- Paid Go away for All Staff Act – Below Illinois’ Paid Go away for All Staff Act, which fits into impact January 1, 2024, employers should present their Illinois‑based mostly staff with a minimal of 40 hours of paid depart annually. Go away will accrue at a price of 1 hour for each 40 hours labored, except the employer chooses to frontload the depart. Staff start to accrue paid depart when their employment begins (or on January 1, 2024, whichever is later), and depart can be utilized for any motive. Employers might require as much as seven days’ discover if the depart is foreseeable, however might not require staff to submit any documentation or certification concerning the necessity to take depart. Notably, the regulation does not apply to employers who’re lined by the Chicago Paid Sick Go away regulation or the Prepare dinner County Earned Sick Go away Ordinance.
- Chicago Felony Historical past Restrictions – Pursuant to Ordinance 2023-1329, Chicago’s prison historical past screening regulation is amended, efficient April 24, 2023. The amended ordinance now requires: (1) an individualized evaluation; (2) a pre-adverse and last adversarial motion discover when employers are assessing prison information; and (3) extra language in an adversarial motion discover. When performing an individualized evaluation, employers might solely base an adversarial employment motion on a person’s prison conviction document if there’s a “substantial relationship” between the person’s prison offense(s) and the job sought or held or the employer believes that the person poses an unreasonable threat to the property or security of the corporate’s workforce, clients, or members of the general public, based mostly on the person’s prison offense(s). Additional, when offering the adversarial motion notices, employers should embrace the particular reasoning for the disqualification from employment inside each the pre-adverse motion discover and last adversarial motion discover and state inside their last adversarial motion discover that the person has the appropriate to file a cost throughout the Chicago Fee on Human Relations.
- Chicago Expands Nondiscrimination Provisions – With the passage of O2022-3993, Chicago now prohibits employers from discriminating towards candidates or staff based mostly upon their selections concerning reproductive well being or gender-affirming care.
Kentucky
- Kentucky has grow to be the thirty eighth state to legalize medical marijuana. Below the medical hashish regulation, employers usually are not required to allow or accommodate an worker’s use of medical marijuana within the office. Employers are permitted to keep up zero-tolerance or drug-free office insurance policies, together with testing for marijuana. Nonetheless, a registered cardholder can’t be thought-about underneath the affect of marijuana solely due to the presence of marijuana metabolites in a drug take a look at. Reasonably, to exhibit impairment, an employer should conduct a behavioral evaluation and have a optimistic drug take a look at, then the burden of proving non-impairment shifts to the worker. Notably, the regulation expressly offers that it doesn’t allow a reason for motion towards an employer for wrongful discharge or discrimination. The laws are to be finalized by July 1, 2024, and the principle provisions of regulation will take impact on January 1, 2025.
Maryland
- Paid Go away Delay – Maryland’s legislature has voted to delay the beginning date for the state paid household and medical depart program by one yr. Below S.B. 828, contributions to this system will now start October 1, 2024, and staff will have the ability to begin utilizing advantages on January 1, 2026.
- Non-Compete Legislation Amended – Maryland’s non-compete restrictions have been amended efficient October 1, 2023; beforehand, non-competition agreements had been prohibited with staff incomes equal to or lower than $15 per hour or $31,200 per yr; S.B. 591 modifies that threshold to “150% of the state minimal wage price….” As of January 1, 2023, the Maryland minimal wage was $13.25; it goes as much as $14.00 per hour on January 1, 2024 and $15.00 per hour on January 1, 2025.
- Legalizes Leisure Marijuana – Maryland has joined the bandwagon, legalizing grownup use of marijuana, nonetheless the regulation doesn’t handle use of marijuana by staff, thus employers can proceed to ban marijuana use and have interaction in drug testing for marijuana.
Michigan
- Proper to Work Legislation Repealed – Michigan turned the primary state in many years to repeal its proper to work regulation. Efficient March 30, 2024, union safety clauses in collective bargaining agreements will not be prohibited. Which means that Michigan staff in unionized workplaces may be contractually required to affix a union or pay union dues, charges, or different expenses as a situation of employment.
- Office Nondiscrimination Protections Expanded – Michigan has handed laws amending the state’s anti-discrimination regulation, by together with sexual orientation and gender id as protected classes, and by increasing the definition of intercourse discrimination to incorporate employment actions taken based mostly upon an worker’s termination of a being pregnant.
- Present Paid Medical Go away Legislation Stays Intact – In an opinion issued January 26, 2023, the Michigan Court docket of Appeals reversed a 2022 Court docket of Claims choice voiding amendments to Michigan’s Paid Medical Go away Act (PMLA). In so doing, the Court docket of Appeals successfully blocked an growth to the PMLA which might have, amongst different issues, lined employers with fewer than 50 staff and elevated the annual sick depart entitlement. The Court docket of Appeals’ choice signifies that for now, PMLA nonetheless solely applies to employers of fifty or extra staff, and staff are solely entitled to as much as 40 hours of paid depart per profit yr. Nonetheless, on February 10, 2023 the choice was appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court docket.
Minnesota
- Creates Paid Household and Medical Profit Insurance coverage Program – With the passage of H.F. 2, Minnesota has joined the ranks of states offering employer-subsidized insurance coverage to supply as much as 12 weeks’ of wage alternative advantages when eligible staff take depart for sure household and/or medical causes. The regulation is ready to enter impact in 2026, with employer reporting necessities set to start on July 1, 2024.
- Minnesota CROWN Act – Minnesota has joined the rising checklist of states (19 and counting) to have enacted some model of the CROWN Act. On February 1, 2023, the Minnesota Human Rights Act was amended by increasing the definition of “race” to incorporate “traits related to race, together with however not restricted to hair texture and hair kinds resembling braids, locs, and twists.”
- Bloomington Earned Sick and Protected Go away Ordinance – The ordinance, which takes impact July 1, 2023, would require employers with 5 or extra staff to supply their Bloomington-based staff with one hour of paid sick and secure depart for each 30 hours labored throughout the geographic boundaries of Bloomington. The ordinance covers any worker (together with part-time and non permanent staff) who works no less than 80 hours per yr in Bloomington. Accrual is capped at 48 hours per yr, and staff are entitled to hold over a most of 80 hours of accrued, unused depart into the next yr.
- St. Paul Amends Sick and Protected Go away – On January 19, 2023, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter signed an modification to town’s Earned Sick and Protected Time ordinance (ESST). Efficient February 18, 2023, a lined worker now contains non permanent and part-time staff “who carry out work throughout the geographic boundaries of town” for no less than eighty hours in a yr, fairly than staff who’re merely headquartered within the metropolis.
Montana
- Worker Free Speech Protected – Below S.B. 270, efficient October 1, 2023, staff in Montana can’t be fired for participating in authorized expressions of free speech, together with on social media, except the expressions violate the employers’ coverage or a contract. Employers would thus be clever to overview their insurance policies to make sure they embrace any desired restrictions.
