PS&H Employment Partner Michael A. Gamboli, who is based in the firm’s Providence office, is quoted extensively in the February 6 Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly talking about the new “gig economy” and a highly anticipated decision from the federal District Court in Rhode Island, on the issue of whether Uber drivers are employees of the company or...
On Tuesday, September 24, 2019, the United States Department of Labor (“Department”) announced its much anticipated Final Rule raising the salary threshold necessary to exempt certain executive, administrative, and professional employees from receiving overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The Final Rule is set to take effect on January 1, 2020. The...
PS&H employment partner and Chair of the Labor & Employment Group, Alicia Samolis, spoke with RI Lawyers Weekly on the rising incidence of reverse discrimination inquiries and matters that she is seeing. Attributed at least in part to the #MeToo movement and increased focus on diversity and inclusion efforts, Samolis commented that, “What I have seen, at...
By Alicia J. Samolis & Geri Rosman 1. MEDICAL AND RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA IN THE WORKPLACE. Employers in the Northeast are faced with mounting questions arising from the legalization of medical and recreational marijuana. One challenge is handling compliance with drug-free workplace requirements associated with federal funding or contracts without discriminating against employees. Another involves the potential...
As has been widely rumored, the Commonwealth has decided to delay the July 1 implementation of the Massachusetts paid family and medical leave law (“PFML”). A joint statement by Massachusetts Governor, Charlie Baker, Senate President, Karen Spilka, and House Speaker, Robert DeLeo explains: [T]he deadline to begin employer contributions to the PFML program has been...
By Alicia J. Samolis, Michael A. Gamboli and Christopher M. Wildenhain A year ago, the United States Supreme Court issued its seminal decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis, which confirmed that employers may use mandatory individual arbitration agreements without fear of the National Labor Relations Act (see our prior client alert for more details). In Epic’s wake, some employers,...
By Alicia J. Samolis As seen in Law360 In the recent case of Whitmire v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc.,[1] the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona granted summary judgment on anti-discrimination claims in favor of the plaintiff and against Walmart under Arizona’s medical marijuana statute. The plaintiff, a former employee of Walmart, had been terminated...
Again? In a case of what must feel like déjà vu for employers, on March 7, 2019, after conducting “listening sessions” across the country and receiving tens of thousands of comments from the public, the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a much-anticipated proposed rule (“Proposed Rule”) that, according to its estimates, would result...
(Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part column. See part 1 here.) By Alicia J. Samolis and Michael A. Gamboli As detailed in Part I, certain types of noncompetition agreements are now invalid under the new Massachusetts noncompete law (the Act). This is of course a double-edged sword for employers, who will now benefit from...
(Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part column. See part 2 here.) By Alicia J. Samolis Massachusetts has recently enacted a law that will render some restrictive covenants unenforceable. The law starts by broadly defining noncompetition agreements as any agreement between a company and a worker in which the worker “agrees that he or...
