What should employers do if a job applicant voluntarily discloses a disability during an interview?
In most cases, employers cannot ask disability-related questions until after an applicant receives a conditional job offer, according to McDermott’s Laurie A. Baddon in this Society for Human Resource Management article. Once the employer makes a conditional offer, the employer can ask disability-related questions and require medical examinations for any applicant. Employers can ask applicants about their ability to perform essential job duties with or without accommodation.
As US Congressional Democrats continue their advocacy for a pro-worker agenda, multiple bills and rules could bring about sweeping changes to the civil rights and labor protections for millions of workers. These include:
The Equality Act
The Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
The Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act)
The US Department of Labor’s Overtime Rule
According to McDermott partner Ellen Bronchetti, the PRO Act, for example, would enshrine a strict ABC test into federal law that would analyze whether workers qualify as independent contractors.
“I think that because Biden has promised to strengthen worker protections and strengthen workers’ right to organize, I think employers need to keep a real close eye on this legislation or versions of the legislation or pieces that might get pulled out and put elsewhere,” Bronchetti said in an article published in Law360.
Employment law continues to evolve, and it can be a challenge amid an ever-changing landscape of local employment laws for human resources executives and employment counsel at multinational businesses to maintain a consistent global corporate culture.
McDermott’s Global Employment Law Update brings you the key highlights from across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin and North America. Developed in collaboration with peer firms operating in more than 50 countries, this resource guide contains summaries of the laws and significant court decisions that impacted employers and employees all over the world. It includes:
The Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act) passed the US House of Representatives for a second time this March. If it’s signed into law, the legislation would eliminate state right-to-work laws, increase the number of workers eligible for collective bargaining and ban mandatory arbitration agreements.
In this video, McDermott partner Ron Holland breaks down the PRO Act’s most significant changes to employment law.
On May 5, 2021, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the New York Health and Essential Rights (HERO) Act, which imposes stringent new workplace safety requirements for all employers in New York. The law is expected to take effect on June 4, 2021.
Employers have questions about the COVID-19 vaccine and how to update their employment policies. In this video, McDermott partners, Chris Braham, Chris Foster and Michelle Strowhiro answer questions about vaccine requirements in the workforce, additional considerations and more.
The federal government has taken major steps to boost insurers’ coverage of mental health and substance abuse treatment in recent years, and with the confirmation of former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, that trend will likely continue.
As teleworking evolves from necessity to norm, companies with long-term remote workers abroad are facing the expiration of countries’ taxation grace periods—offered at the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic—and, in their place, potentially nebulous cross-border tax complications.
In a recent article for Law360, McDermott partner David Noren discusses employer tax considerations related to remote workforces.
The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, union neutrality and changes to wages and enforcement of health and safety regulations are part of the legislative plan on its way to Congress. Of these proposals, the PRO Act, which has already passed the US House of Representatives, may face the most opposition in the Senate.
In a recent article by the Society for Human Resource Management, McDermott partner Ron Holland examines the potential impact of President Biden’s infrastructure package on the American workforce and economy.
New guidance streamlines the methods for calculating withdrawal liability for multiemployer union pension plans that have adopted benefit reductions, benefit suspensions, surcharges or contribution increases—a common occurrence with underfunded multiemployer pension plans.
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