Ogletree Deakins

Quick Hits A federal court in Massachusetts has temporarily halted the Education Department’s ACTS survey for a group of higher education institutions that intervened in a legal challenge brought by seventeen states. The latest temporary restraining order extends the compliance deadline for intervening institutions to April 24, 2026, while prohibiting enforcement of previous deadlines. The order follows a preliminary injunction blocking the ACTS survey as likely “arbitrary and capricious,” limited…

Quick Hits The DOJ and a New Jersey-based IT staffing firm reached a $313,420 settlement over allegations that the firm’s job postings discriminated against U.S. citizens. Federal law protects applicants and employees from discrimination and harassment based on race, ethnicity, citizenship status, and national origin, including U.S. nationality. This settlement reflects the Trump administration’s emphasis on anti-American bias and addressing discrimination against majority groups. Title VII of the Civil Rights…

Quick Hits The Supreme Court of California ruled that the formatting of an arbitration agreement does not influence its substantive unconscionability, but courts must still evaluate the agreement’s legibility and context for potential unfairness. The court emphasized the sliding scale analysis of unconscionability, stating that excessive procedural unconscionability can render even minimally substantively unconscionable agreements unenforceable. The court said the appellate court had erred in applying a presumption in favor…

Quick Hits The DOJ will not prosecute companies when they voluntarily self-disclose misconduct, fully cooperate with the DOJ’s investigation, and correct the misconduct in a timely and appropriate manner. Companies will be eligible for a declination even if a whistleblower reports to the DOJ first, if the company self-reports to DOJ within 120 days of receiving an internal report. The new policy became effective immediately. The DOJ investigates a wide…

Quick Hits OSHA’s heat-related illness and injury prevention NEP is set to expire on April 8, 2026, with no public indication that the current administration intends to extend or replace it. OSHA’s proposed permanent heat illness prevention rule has stalled with no target date for finalization and appears unlikely to advance in the near term. OSHA retains citation authority under the OSH Act’s General Duty Clause and multiple states already…

Quick Hits The Illinois Supreme Court held that Illinois’s Minimum Wage Law does not adopt federal exclusions for preliminary and postliminary activities. The ruling came in a certified question from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and revived a class of employees’ state wage-and-hour claims over mandatory pre-shift COVID-19 screenings. The ruling highlights a trend of state courts holding that their states’ wage-and-hour laws do not necessarily…

Quick Hits Assembly Bill (AB) 2095, introduced in the California Assembly, proposes significant amendments to California’s ban-the-box law, the Fair Chance Act. The bill’s provisions, among others, would require employers to provide a list of specific job duties that may be relevant to the employer’s subsequent assessment of conviction history and establish a rebuttable presumption regarding conviction-to-job relationships. AB 2095 would also require employers to document their assessments in writing…

Quick Hits The Massachusetts Superior Court held that the PFMLA’s anti-retaliation protections impose obligations only on “employers” as defined in the unemployment insurance statute, and do not extend liability to a corporate employer’s officers, agents, investors, or board members. The court distinguished the PFMLA from the Massachusetts Wage Act, which expressly deems corporate officers and agents to be “employers” of the corporation’s employees, language that is absent from the PFMLA.…

Quick Hits A Massachusetts federal court granted a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of the ACTS survey against public institutions in seventeen plaintiff states, finding plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claim that the promulgation and adoption of the survey was arbitrary and capricious. The court rejected plaintiffs’ arguments that the ACTS survey exceeds NCES’s statutory authority and that it violates the Paperwork Reduction Act, affirming that NCES has broad…

Quick Hits The German Federal Labor Court held that blanket release clauses in employment contracts that entitle the employer to grant a release upon termination constitute an unreasonable disadvantage and are invalid. An employee’s interest in continuing employment until the termination of the employment relationship generally outweighs an employer’s interest in granting the employee a leave of absence in a terminated employment relationship until the expiration of the notice period.…

Quick Hits USCIS has received enough H-1B registrations for unique beneficiaries to meet the annual cap. Petitioners will have ninety days, beginning on April 1, 2026, to file a completed H-1B petition for each selected beneficiary. Employment in H-1B status can begin no earlier than October 1, 2026. The FY 2027 lottery is the first to use the new weighted, wage-level-based selection process established under a DHS rule that took…

Quick Hits ViaQuest Residential Services recently agreed to pay $975,000 to settle claims it misclassified program managers as exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Ohio’s wage laws. The case, Simmons v. ViaQuest Residential Services LLC, No. 2:23-00201 (S.D. Ohio), centered on whether program managers’ “primary duty” was management or direct patient care. One hundred-six plaintiffs opted in after conditional certification, illustrating how quickly liability can…

Quick Hits As of January 1, 2026, Connecticut employers with eleven or more employees must provide paid sick leave to all nonseasonal workers, with full expansion to employers of any size expected by January 1, 2027. Connecticut’s Paid Family and Medical Leave maximum weekly benefit rose to $1,016.40 in 2026 while the employee contribution rate remains unchanged at 0.5 percent of wages. Connecticut employers may want to audit exempt employee…

Quick Hits The Superior Court of Québec found that an arbitration award that had overturned the dismissal of a heavy vehicle driver for failure to accommodate was unreasonable, thereby reinstating the dismissal. The court opinion confirms that zero-tolerance policies for alcohol consumption constitute a legitimate standard that is reasonably necessary to ensure public safety. The duty to accommodate was not triggered because the automatic dismissal took effect before the employer…

Quick Hits New Jersey lawmakers are currently considering several bills that would have significant implications for employers. Key proposals include the establishment of paid prenatal leave, an extension of pregnancy-related disability benefits, and amendments to ensure paid sick leave applies to employees bound by amendable collective bargaining agreements. Here is a summary of some notable employment law bills currently under consideration. Pregnancy-Related Employment Protections Assembly Bill (A) 113—Concerns bereavement leave…

Quick Hits Newly proposed AB 2321 would require Cal/OSHA’s Bureau of Investigations to “timely notify” the local district attorney’s office of any case “in which there is a serious injury or death,” unless “the bureau determines there is legally insufficient evidence of a violation of the law.” The referral requirement applies to fatalities and cases of permanent total disability. The term “permanent total disability”—language borrowed from the state’s workers’ compensation…

Quick Hits Even “just for fun” April Fools’ jokes and pranks must not violate the rights of others or disrupt workplace harmony; in cases of serious violations, German labor law sanctions up to and including termination without notice are possible. Content that discriminates against or demeans others may constitute harassment—employers have duties to protect and prevent such behavior. What counts as an April Fools’ prank? April Fools’ jokes are defined…

Quick Hits A Massachusetts federal court provisionally granted intervention in ongoing litigation challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s ACTS survey, for a limited purpose, to two higher-education associations seeking TROs against the survey deadlines. The TRO extends the deadline to complete the ACTS survey to April 14, 2026, for the proposed intervenor associations and their constituent institutions and restrains enforcement of the earlier March 18 and March 31 deadlines against…

AB 1803 represents California’s latest effort to expand mandatory workplace training requirements—this time, to address what its sponsors describe as a gap in existing law with respect to hate-motivated conduct in the workplace. Quick Hits California is poised to expand mandatory workplace training requirements. AB 1803, introduced in February 2026, would require employers with five or more employees to incorporate anti-hate speech training into their existing workplace harassment prevention programs—a…

Quick Hits The DOL proposed a six-factor safe harbor to meet a fiduciary’s duty of prudence when selecting designated investment alternatives under participant-directed defined contribution plans. The proposed regulation does not apply to brokerage windows or self-directed brokerage accounts under defined contribution plans.  This proposal follows President Trump’s executive order aimed at increasing access to alternative assets and reversing earlier Biden-era guidance that discouraged such investments due to risk concerns. …

Quick Hits In Larkin v. Total Quality Logistics, LLC, a logistics firm was sued after it denied a work-from-home accommodation request from an employee with a high-risk pregnancy. A jury found the accommodation denial contributed to the baby’s premature birth and death. The case shows how an accommodation denial may create liability for employers if they aggravate a worker’s medical condition. Background on the Case In 2021, a claims associate…

Quick Hits Virginia’s General Assembly has passed legislation that would prohibit noncompete agreements for healthcare professionals. HB1 and SB1 would establish a multiyear schedule to increase Virginia’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by January 1, 2028, with further adjustments based on the Consumer Price Index starting in 2029. SB258 and SB790 would introduce workplace protections and health insurance coverage for menopause and perimenopause. Prohibiting Healthcare Noncompete Agreements (Senate Bill…

Quick Hits Smart glasses, which can record audio, video, and capture facial recognition data, present significant employment law challenges for retailers. Overly broad recording bans can be illegal under the National Labor Relations Act. Retail employers may want to engage in an interactive process for accommodation requests related to smart glasses to avoid potential lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Recording Problem: Know the State Laws Unlike cellular…

Quick Hits Germany’s Federal Labor Court ruled that recurring seasonal allergies like hay fever may be considered a continuation of the same underlying condition rather than new illnesses. Employers can contest sick leave claims for recurring seasonal allergies if the employee has been absent for more than six weeks within the relevant periods, shifting the burden of proof to the employee. Employers are generally protected against liability for allergic reactions…

Quick Hits Expanded worker protections are becoming the norm across nearly all jurisdictions. Reduced working hours are trending globally. AI regulation in HR is accelerating, from the EU AI Regulation affecting Germany, to Ontario’s AI disclosure rules in Canada, to the UAE’s use of AI for enforcement. Compliance and reporting standards continue to rise, including enhanced pay transparency requirements and contractor classification rules. From sweeping labor code consolidations to new…

Quick Hits Twenty states and the District of Columbia recently filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, challenging the USDA’s new funding conditions related to anti-DEI, gender ideology, and immigration requirements. Similar certification requirements are emerging across federal agencies, including a certification recently proposed by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). Federal grant recipients and contractors may wish to evaluate their DEI-related programs and monitor…

Quick Hits In Walsh v. HNTB Corp., a former employee sued an architectural design firm for age discrimination and constructive discharge after it placed her on a performance improvement plan (PIP). The First Circuit found that the facts of this case did not meet the standard for an adverse employment action established with the Supreme Court of the United States’ decision in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis. While a…

Quick Hits Law 2466 of 2025 introduces significant labor reforms in Colombia, including prioritizing indefinite-term contracts, redefining work schedules, and expanding paid leave. The reform mandates hiring quotas for people with disabilities, strengthens anti-discrimination protections, and introduces new teleworking modalities. Night shifts will continue to carry a 35 percent premium, and work on Sundays and holidays will see a gradual increase in pay, reaching a 100 percent premium by July…

Quick Hits A Massachusetts federal court extended a temporary restraining order halting new data reporting requirements for state colleges and universities until April 6, 2026, while considering a preliminary injunction. Seventeen states claim the Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS) survey imposes unlawful burdens and violates administrative laws by politicizing data collection. The federal government argued that states will not face irreparable harm from the reporting deadline and asserted that…

Quick Hits On March 18, 2026, the State Department added twelve countries to the visa bond program: Cambodia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Grenada, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, and Tunisia. The visa bond program now includes a total of fifty countries. The State Department expanded its list of designated ports of entry to include all commercial airports, including CBP preclearance locations. This measure is aimed at reducing visa…

Quick Hits Utah has enacted H.B. 380 to address and reduce workplace violence in healthcare, requiring hospitals to implement comprehensive reporting systems for such incidents. The law, which takes effect on May 6, 2026, mandates detailed tracking of workplace violence incidents, protection for employees reporting these incidents, and annual reporting of data to the state health department. The collected data is intended to drive improvements in prevention strategies, such as…

Quick Hits On March 23, 2026, Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed a bill into law that will ban noncompete agreements for employees and independent contractors. The law will declare all current employment-based and independent contractor-based “noncompetition agreements” to be void and unenforceable, and will prohibit employers from enforcing them. The law will prohibit entering into new employment-based and independent contractor-based noncompetition covenants. The ban will not apply to certain other…

Quick Hits Voluntary equality action plans will be introduced in the UK in April 2026. Mandatory publication is expected from spring 2027, subject to secondary legislation. Equality plans will need to address both the gender pay gap and menopause support. The guidance emphasises practical, evidence-based action. Employers may want to use the voluntary period to prepare ahead of the mandatory requirements. From April 2026, employers with 250 or more employees…

On November 21, 2025, the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division Five, issued a published decision in Lorenzo v. San Francisco Zen Center addressing the scope of the ministerial exception under the First Amendment in the context of wage-and-hour claims brought by a former staff member against the San Francisco Zen Center, a Zen Buddhist training center. The court reversed summary judgment in favor of the defendants, holding…

Quick Hits The Trump administration released an AI policy framework, largely reiterating the administration’s previously stated policy goals to promote AI. In particular, the framework urges Congress to establish preemption of state and local regulations to promote innovation. The likelihood of these policy goals being fully implemented is uncertain at this time. The “National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence” provides broad, overarching legislative recommendations for Congress for governing the development…

Quick Hits The DOL’s new website for the Center for Faith includes resources on preventing workplace religious discrimination and how faith organizations can access federal grants. The website is part of the Trump administration’s focus on addressing religious bias in the workplace. Federal antidiscrimination laws protect all types of religious belief, as well as atheism. The DOL established the Center for Faith in response to an executive order in 2025.…

Quick Hits On March 17, 2026, Washington Governor Ferguson signed legislation that amends the definition of “employers” that are required to comply with the state’s mini-WARN law to exclude Native American tribes. The bill also changes the notices that must contain the names and addresses of employees affected by layoffs. The amended mini-WARN Act also stops disclosure under the Public Records Act of the names and addresses of affected employees.…

Quick Hits Artificial intelligence, facial recognition systems, and body cameras on security guards are some of the newer methods retailers are using to prevent crime in stores. Recording audio without consent may be prohibited under federal and state laws. Employees and customers have certain privacy rights where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. Retailers are under pressure to balance security concerns, such as preventing theft, with the privacy rights…

Quick Hits The Third Circuit allowed a white police officer’s discrimination lawsuit to proceed, predicting that the Supreme Court of New Jersey would drop the “Background Circumstances Rule” requiring heightened proof for reverse discrimination claims. The ruling reflects a 2025 decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that rejected higher standards for majority-group plaintiffs in discrimination cases. A concurrence further criticized the “Background Circumstances Rule” as discriminatory and…

Quick Hits USCIS will continue to accept adjustment of status filings based on the Dates for Filing chart in April 2026. EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3 categories are current on the Dates for Filing chart for all countries other than India, China, and Philippines (only EB-1 and EB-2 categories are current for Philippines). EB-1 category final action dates advance for China and India. EB-2 and EB-3 categories for India advance significantly…