During the COVID-19 pandemic, many employers required their employees to work remotely to comply with state mandates and ensure their employees’ and customers’ health and safety. That resulted in a shift in attitudes about work-from-home policies.
What began as a necessity has shifted to a preference. A majority of employees believe that significant portions of their job functions can be performed remotely. Furthermore, most employees wish to continue to work from home at least part of the time. Market factors and employers’ desires to retain their talented, trained employees have resulted in employers implementing remote work policies.
This shift will create legal issues that employers should consider.
By allowing your employees to work remotely, you are potentially opening up your company to be sued in foreign jurisdictions where your company’s employees are working.
In order to confer jurisdiction against your company, a Court must conclude that there is either general or specific jurisdiction over it. Specific jurisdiction refers to the court exercising personal jurisdiction over a party arising over that party’s specific contacts with a forum state. For example, a California business with offices only located in that state may get sued in New Jersey if one of its employees was involved in a motor vehicle accident in New Jersey while making a sales call in the Garden State. Although the employee is a resident of California...
On Friday, April 10, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has agreed to pay just over $17 million to resolve allegations that ...