Michigan Labor & Employment Law Blog

Employee Misclassification and the Gig Economy

One of the most concerning trends in employment law today is employee misclassification. Stringent labor protections put in place by the government, the increased use of of independent contractors and explosion in the gig economy means that the burden is on employers not only to classify employees correctly, but also to treat them strictly within the boundaries of the law under that classification. Read More ›

Categories: Department of Labor, Did you Know?, Employment, Labor Relations, Lawsuit

Posted by: Clifford L. Hammond

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Preparing to Deal With Employee Absences as Schools Move to Remote and Alternate Schedules

As the fall nears, the school year is about to kick off. While employees juggling work and school obligations can always present an issue, this year could prove to be a little more complicated than usual. Although some schools are preparing to go back to school in-person, others are utilizing a variety of modified schedules, or going totally remote. Even those schools going back in-person will inevitably be faced with children who have COVID-19 or at the least, symptoms as we move into flu season. Read More ›

Categories: Department of Labor, Employee Handbook, Employment

Posted by: Clifford L. Hammond

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Federal District Court Vacates New Association Health Plan Rules

On June 21, 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued final regulations that expanded the availability of association health plans ("AHPs"). Those regulations (the "AHP Rules") were summarized in our previous blog article. An AHP is an arrangement that allows small businesses to band together to obtain healthcare coverage as if they were a single large employer. Read More ›

Categories: Department of Labor, Employee Benefits, Health Care Reform

Posted by: Julie LaVille Hamlet

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The Return of the Unpaid Internship

For the past eight years, the U.S. Department of Labor (the "DOL") followed a strict six-part test to determine whether a for-profit employer could use interns without compensating them for the services they provided. Read More ›

Categories: Department of Labor, Employee Handbook, Employment, Fashion, Labor Relations

Posted by: Michael R. Blum, Deanna Swisher

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Temporary injunction issued against Department of Labor overtime regulations

A Federal court in Texas issued a temporary injunction yesterday against the new Department of Labor (“DOL”) overtime regulations that were set to go into effect December 1st.

The injunction follows court arguments heard on November 16th in a lawsuit brought by 21 states alleging the new DOL’s rules exceeds the DOL’s authority and violated administrative law requirements. The new regulations propose to raise the salary threshold for exempt employees from $23,660 to $47,476 and provide for an automatic increase to the threshold every three years. Read More ›

Categories: Department of Labor, News & Events, Overtime, Regulations

Posted by: Michael R. Blum, Clifford L. Hammond

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Will You Lose Your Labor Lawyer?

The Department of Labor issued its long dreaded "persuader" regulation that seeks to intimidate businesses and their labor counsel from working with each other in the future. In short, any labor lawyer who is engaged to help a company deal with union organizing or other union issues now may have to file, (under threat of potential criminal sanctions for failing to file), detailed information about the nature and cost of legal representation. Similarly, employers will have to file documents with the Department of Labor detailing who they retained, what they did, and how much they were paid. In addition, that information will probably be available on the Department of Labor website.  Read More ›

Categories: Department of Labor, News & Events, Regulations, Union

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