February 24, 2023
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NLRB Issues Ruling on Unlawful Severance Agreements

This week, the National Labor Relations Board issued a ruling stipulating that employers cannot make employee severance packages contingent on workers giving up NLRA-enacted rights. Specifically, that employers cannot prevent terminated employees from disparaging the employer or keeping the contents and existence of their severance agreement confidential.

In this most recent decision the board ruled that offering severance based on giving up labor rights was in and of itself an effort by employers to steer workers away from their statutory rights.  

According to board chairman Lauren McFerran, “It’s long been understood by the Board and the courts that employers cannot ask individual employees to choose between receiving benefits and exercising their rights under the National Labor Relations Act. Today’s decision upholds this important principle and restores longstanding precedent,”

The NLRB’s ruling is part of a larger strategy by the Biden administration to shore up workers’ rights. As of now, the common provisions of non-disparagement and confidentiality in severance agreements are not permissible under this ruling, however, it is expected to be appealed. The ruling also references potential carve-outs, which will be explored in the coming months. We will be monitoring this ruling closely as it has broad ramifications for our employer and employee clients signing or offering severance agreements.

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Special Issue of Harvard Law & Policy Review Focuses on Pregnancy

December 7, 2020
Pregnancy Discrimination
The Harvard Law & Policy review has recently devoted an issue to the special theme of “The Politics of Pregnancy.” It contains numerous responses to and discussions of myriad political issues of pregnancy in the U.S. and abroad, including increased emphasis on maternal health, abortion access, surrogacy, and state intervention into matters of women’s health, including the effects of incarceration on mothers.

Changes to New York Employment Laws to Have Lasting Impact, Says Law360

December 3, 2020
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This week Law 360 published a helpful guide to how the pandemic has changed employment law in New York and what kinds of impacts those changes will have into 2021 and beyond.

Can Employers Require Workers to Get Vaccines?

December 3, 2020
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Now that a vaccine, or more accurately, many vaccines, seems inevitable, an important new question has emerged: Can employers require workers to vaccinate?

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