Recent Amendments to Federal and State Labor & Employment Laws

In the United States, federal and state employment and labor laws continue to evolve on regular basis. As a valuable resource to his clients, our office is providing the following summary of the most recent amendments affecting Florida employers on both a federal and state level.

Federal Amendments

• Recently, the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, issued a new rule requiring all employers that are subject to its jurisdiction to provide written and electronic notice to employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act. However, a federal circuit court has temporarily suspended the new requirements until all outstanding issues have been resolved. There has been no deadline posted for when the new NLRB’s notice requirements will go into effect. For more information, go to https://www.nlrb.gov/poster.

• As of March 2011, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, issued regulations that expands employee rights and protections under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The new regulations also reduce the ability for employers to assert that certain conditions are unprotected under the ADA. For further information, go to https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/regulations/adaaa_fact_sheet.cfm.
• Employers in Florida can now find it easier to deny unemployment benefits to employees who were terminated due to misconduct. In June of 2011, the Florida Legislature amended the State’s unemployment laws (Fla. Stat. 443.036 et seq.) by broadening the definition of misconduct to include unacceptable behavior that occurs outside of the workplace and during regular business hours. All employers need to show is that the employee was terminated because he or she consciously disregarded an employer’s interest.
• For employers in Florida that have contracts with the State, they must now use a federal E-Verify program to check the eligibility of current and prospective employees. The E-Verify program is offered online by the Department of Homeland Security and is specifically designed to allow employers to check whether an employee or job application is legally authorized to work in the United States.

If you have any questions about how the recent federal and state employment laws will affect your business, you should contact our qualified employment litigation attorney.