Articles by Erick Lange

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently approved an amendment to its Safeguards Rule to introduce the data security breach reporting requirement for all covered entities, including non-banking financial institutions. Specifically, this requirement applies when a non-banking financial institution discovers that information affecting 500 or more people has been exposed without authorization. ...

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced on October 27 that a company in Massachusetts paid $3.2 million to settle an exempt worker misclassification case that affected over 700 sales representatives. The DOL found that the employer had misclassified the employees as exempt from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA’s) administrative exemption rule. In July 2023, the DOL s...

The following legislation was recently passed in the state of California. As an employer, the information included in this post may apply to your business. It is every employer’s responsibility to verify that they are in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Assembly Bill 933 (2023-2024) Privileged Communications: Incident of Sexual Assault On October 10th, 2023, Governor Gavin Ne...

On October 19th, 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), along with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), announced new efforts to strengthen protections for migrant workers under the H-2B program. According to the agencies, these individuals are often vulnerable to exploitation under more unscrupulous employ...

Recent court cases have shown that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to examine non-disclosure agreements for securities law violations. Specifically, this refers to violations of Rule 21F-17 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). This rule is critical to the SEC’s ability to protect workers under the Dodd-Frank Act and prote...

This month, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) secured significant settlements in two cases for different labor law violations at the same company. In the first case, investigators found wage and hour violations at a federally-contracted provider of security and facility services. The contractor was ordered to pay over $1 million. In the second case, the same security and facility services prov...

On October 12th, 2023, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) announced that they will launch a national survey of employers to assess current respirator use and practices in the workplace. This is the first time since 2001 that the agency has sought updated data on employers’ respiratory protection practices. The survey will collect data from U.S. employers across al...

Earlier this month, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 700, which amends the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) to protect applicants from discrimination for prior cannabis use. The law also provides for some specific exceptions. This isn’t the first time California has expanded cannabis law into the realm of employment. In October 2022, Governor Newsom signed ...

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently announced that a pharmaceutical company in Indianapolis, Indiana, will pay $2.4 million in a nationwide age discrimination lawsuit. According to the EEOC’s charges, the company failed to hire older individuals (over 40 years of age) for pharmaceutical sales representative roles. Last month, the EEOC reached a settlement in a separ...