Hospitality

Blog

Recent Blog Posts

  • Our colleague Paul DeCamp at Epstein Becker Green has a post on the Wage & Hour Defense Blog that will be of interest to our readers in the hospitality industry: “Supreme Court Prevents Successive Class Actions from Reviving Time-Barred Claims.” In most wage and hour cases, each workweek gives rise to a separate claim, at least for statute of limitations purposes. Thus, an employee seeking payment for alleged off-the-clock work or an independent contractor claiming misclassification and entitlement to overtime ordinarily may seek back... More
  • On June 4, the Supreme Court voted 7-2 in favor of a Christian Colorado baker and owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, who had refused to create a custom wedding cake for a gay couple due to his religious objections to gay marriage. Although the case previously had been litigated on free speech grounds, the Court’s opinion largely avoids this constitutional question, and does not address whether Title VII prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. Instead, the decision focuses on the Colorado Civil... More
  • Featured on Employment Law This Week:  NJ Senate Advances Ban on Sex Harassment Confidentiality Agreements. The New Jersey Senate wants no more secrecy around harassment claims. On a 34-to-1 vote, the chamber approved legislation banning involving sexual harassment claims. The bill is still pending in the House, where a vote is expected in the next few weeks. The legislation would also allow victims to keep their identities confidential and would establish jurisdiction in Superior Court, arguably bypassing arbitration agreements. Watch the segment below. ... More
  • Our colleagues Jeffrey M. Landes, Susan Gross Sholinsky, and Nancy Gunzenhauser Popper at Epstein Becker Green have a post on the Retail Labor and Employment Law blog that will be of interest to our readers in the hospitality industry: “Vermont Enacts Sweeping Sexual Harassment Prevention Law.” Following is an excerpt: On May 30, 2018, Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed bill H.707, titled “An Act Relating to the Prevention of Sexual Harassment” (the “Act”). Effect on July 1, 2018, the Act provides expansive protections... More
  • After nearly ten years, on Tuesday, June 5, 2018, the World Wide Web Consortium (the “W3C”), the private organization focused on enhancing online user experiences, published the long awaited update to its Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (“WCAG 2.0”), known as the WCAG 2.1.  Those who have been following along with website accessibility’s ever-evolving legal landscape are well aware that, despite not having been formally adopted by regulators for the vast majority of the private sector, compliance with WCAG 2.0... More
  • Massachusetts is one of many states which have adopted legislation, commonly known as a “ban the box” law, prohibiting public and private employers from requesting criminal record information in a prospective employee’s “initial written employment application” and limiting the type and scope of questions an employer may ask a candidate following receipt of an “initial written employment application.” Yesterday, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced that her office has settled with four businesses and issued warning letters to 17 others... More
  • We published an article in Club Director, titled “Harassment and the #MeToo Movement in the Private Club Industry.” Following is an excerpt: The recent heightened awareness to sexual harassment issues affects a wide range of industries, and has prompted employers to consider ways to get ahead of the problem. In order to reduce the risk of such complaints, private clubs may take a number of proactive steps. Anti-Harassment Policy: Clubs should develop a zero-tolerance policy against harassment that includes, at a minimum,... More
  • Our colleagues Jeffrey H. Ruzal, Adriana S. Kosovych, and Judah L. Rosenblatt, attorneys in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, co-authored an article in Club Director, titled “Recent Trends in State and Local Wage and Hour Laws.” Following is an excerpt: As the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) appears to have relaxed its employee protective policy-making and enforcement efforts that grew during the Obama administration, increasingly states and localities have enacted their own, often more protective, employee-protective laws, rules and regulations. To ensure... More
  • So far, 2018 has brought an increasing number of labor and employment rules and regulations. To help you stay up to date, we are pleased to introduce the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management Webinar Series. Epstein Becker Green’s Hospitality service team took a deeper dive into our recently released Take 5 during the first webinar. Topics discussed include: Additional measures to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees in the hospitality workplace Compliance training in the hospitality workplace Transactional due diligence, including labor relations issues The... More
  • Last week, the EEOC released its latest edition of its federal sector Digest of Equal Opportunity Law, a quarterly publication featuring recent Commission decisions and federal court cases selected by EEOC’s Office of Federal Operations. This edition features an article titled, “Promising Practices for Preventing Harassment,” which is the fruition of an EEOC task force on workplace harassment. The article, which is particularly timely given the #MeToo movement, advances five core principles to deter and remedy harassment: (1) committed and... More