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Top 5 Federal L&E Developments From the Past Year

By Robin E. Shea

With many of President Trump’s agency nominations being held up in the Senate, followed by the longest government shutdown in history, it’s been a relatively quiet year for labor and employment law at the federal level. Nonetheless, here are my picks for the most significant developments of the past year.

No. 1: #MeToo. Although a little of the furor seems to be dying down, the #MeToo movement had a big impact on employment law in 2018. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported an almost 13 percent increase in charges alleging sexual harassment in Fiscal Year 2018, which ended September 30, 2018. Now that the agency is back up and running, it will be interesting to see what happens in FY 2019. Although North Carolina has not yet followed the nationwide trend of banning non-disclosure provisions in sexual harassment settlements or mandating employee harassment training, many employers here are already voluntarily adjusting their policies, procedures, and training.

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Judge Halts DOL Overtime Regulations – Now What?

murphyfletcher2By Murphy Fletcher

I imagine that, if you are reading this blog, you have heard the big news: after 5 p.m. on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, a federal judge in Texas issued an order granting a nationwide preliminary injunction that will prevent the DOL overtime regulations from going into effect today, Dec. 1, as everyone had planned.

According to the court, the plaintiffs had demonstrated a “likelihood of success on the merits” due to the fact that the DOL, in enacting the new overtime rule, had exceeded its authority through its significant increase of the salary threshold.  The court took particular notice of the fact that an estimated 4.2 million workers currently ineligible for overtime would automatically become eligible, regardless of duties, due to the increased threshold.  This, in the eyes of the court, would create “essentially a de facto salary-only test.”  After analyzing the other requirements of a preliminary injunction, the court enjoined the DOL from “implementing and enforcing” the new overtime rule.

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