Yesterday the U.S. Department of Labor began enforcement of its Home-Care Rule, which prohibits third-party employers from taking advantage of the overtime exemption for some domestic workers. The rule also narrows the definition of exempt "companionship services" under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Ellen Kearns, co-chair of our firm's Wage and Hour Practice Group, and I ...

In California, marijuana has gone from being an illegal drug to being big business.

Last week Governor Jerry Brown signed into law three pieces of legislation (AB 243, AB 266, and SB 643) aimed at regulating the $1.3 billion medical marijuana industry in the state. The legislation, collectively called the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, will take effect January ...

"An apple a day keeps the doctor lawyer away." Here are five easy and inexpensive things that employers can do to minimize their risk of being sued and maximize their chances of victory if they do get sued. None of these involve major expense, or even the use of lawyers.

1. Err on the side of treating your workers as (a) non-exempt and (b) "employees." Let this be your default ...

Uh-oh. Lawyers who do document review may not be exempt from the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to a court decision issued yesterday.

Large law firms and legal services vendors often hire stables of contract lawyers to do document review in big cases. Sometimes, the lawyers who do the review are actually reading and analyzing the documents in light of ...

Are you still using "independent contractors"? Get out of here - you know they're really employees!

On Wednesday, I did a very short "breaking news" post on the new Interpretation issued by Wage and Hour Administrator David Weil on when workers are "employees" versus "independent contractors" under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Here's more.

As employers probably ...

Law360 reported this morning that the U.S. Department of Labor issued a memorandum addressing the "independent contractor versus employee" issue, taking the position that most workers are actually employees within the meaning of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

We'll have more on this after we've had an opportunity to review it in more depth. Meanwhile, here is the Memorandum

Is that "random" drug test selection really random?

Many employers -- particularly, those in the transportation industry -- use third party vendors to do the random selections for federally mandated drug and alcohol tests. I think it's a great idea, because it prevents employees from claiming that they were selected for "random" testing in a not-very-random process.

Generally ...

Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez announced today that the U.S. Department of Labor has submitted a proposed rule on the white-collar FLSA overtime exemptions to the federal Office of Management and Budget, which means that the proposed revisions to the overtime regulations could be made public before long.

Although the specifics are not known at this time, the proposed rule is ...

Where are we these days with respect to mind-altering substances and the workplace? Here's the latest, with the "substances" discussed in alphabetical order. This blog post is guaranteed accurate™ for at least the next five minutes.

ALCOHOL. Alcohol is legal, which means that it is generally recognized as the most abused of substances. Employers can prohibit its use in the ...

Last October, I posted about a consent decree entered into between Wal-Mart and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in which Wal-Mart agreed to pay $72,500 to candidate for a store job in Maryland whose offer was withdrawn because she couldn’t undergo a urine test for drugs.

The candidate had end-stage renal disease.

Now, Kmart has been hit, too, in a case involving almost ...