Actress Files Class Action Against SAG-AFTRA For Undisclosed Benefit Cuts

For decades, many Hollywood actors and actresses have battled the industry to assert their rights and defend themselves from exploitation. In December of 2020, actor Ed Asner and nine other members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) sued the trustees of their union’s health care plan. In August, making similar allegations to those contained in Asner’s Read More

U.S. Business Groups Support Cornell In ERISA Case

  Two trade groups recently offered support to Cornell University after the academic institution settled a class-action lawsuit brought by participants in Cornell’s retirement program. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Benefits Council filed an amici curiae (friend of the court) brief in Cunningham et al. v. Cornell University et al., case number 21-88 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Read More

Mental Health Parity Act: A Compliance Wake-Up Call

By Tim Kennedy and Anne Hall (October 18, 2021) Recent developments suggest that the U.S. Department of Labor is taking a renewed and more aggressive approach to enforcing the Mental Health  Parity and Addiction Equity Act, or MHPAEA. First, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, or CAA, added a new and complex documentation requirement that will force group health plans and health insurance issuers to take Read More

Interim Final Rule Issued For 2021 No Surprises Act

As 2020 ended, the No Surprises Act (NSA) was signed into law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 to remedy problems associated with surprise medical billing. The NSA, armed with $1.4 trillion in spending, goes into effect on January 1, 2022. In the summer of 2021, barely in time to meet a statutory deadline set by Congress, the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and Treasury, Read More

Seventh Circuit Revives State Law Claims Against Executives Acting As “Dual-Hat” Fiduciaries

In Halperin v. Richards, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 22348, 2021 WL 3184305 (7th Cir., No. 20-2793, July 28, 2021), the Seventh Circuit held that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, (ERISA), does not preempt certain state law claims against directors and officers. The court reasoned that ERISA’s text and purpose contemplate parallel corporate state-law liability by executives who act as “dual hat” Read More

Walgreens Raises Minimum Wage to $15 For All Workers

Walgreens is the latest retail giant to raise its minimum wage for workers,increasing its starting wage to $15 an hour. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. joins several retailers in trying to retain and lure more workers with larger wages. Prior to Walgreens' announcement, chief competitor CVS Health announced it would raise its minimum hourly starting wage to $15 in July of 2022. The pandemic has caused a national labor Read More

Google Again Delays Employees’ Return To Workplace Because of COVID

As the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus rapidly spreads on a global scale, many international and U.S. business enterprises are reevaluating their vaccination and mask policies. One company that has decided to delay moving forward currently is internet giant Google, which postponed the date when its employees must return to the office until after January 10, 2022. Google was also one of the first Read More

OIG Report Says USCIS Must Improve Its Electronic Verification Process

In August of 2021, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) submitted a final report to Ur M. Jaddou, the Director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), entitled USCIS Needs to Improve Its Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification Process. The report found that the E-Verify system used by the USCIS does not have the capacity to accurately Read More

New Legislation Would Raise Federal Minimum Wage To $15

In January 2021, the “Raise the Wage Act of 2021” was introduced in Congress. It aims to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour by 2025. It would be the first increase in twelve years, the longest such period since 1938. Industry organizations have expressed concern over potential confusion the wage increase could cause, while worker advocates urged legislators to immediately pass the Read More

New Jersey Targets Employee Misclassification

After Governor Phil Murphy signed into law an array of legislation in 2020, designed to identify and penalize New Jersey business enterprises for the misclassification of employees as independent contractors, New Jersey passed four new laws in the summer of 2021 to lend support to these earlier efforts to reduce worker misclassification. Misclassification has been a "growing problem" in New Jersey, Sen. Fred Madden, Read More