Virginia employers should be aware of several new employment laws that took effect July 1, 2023. Among other changes, these laws prohibit the enforcement of certain confidentiality and non-disparagement agreements; require employers to provide leave for organ and bone marrow donation; and restrict the use of employees’ Social Security numbers.
In 2019, Virginia enacted a law prohibiting employers from requiring employees or prospective employees, as a condition of employment, to agree to a non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement that “has the purpose or effect of concealing the details relating to a claim of sexual assault.” (Va. Code § 40.1-28.01). Such agreements are void and unenforceable in the Commonwealth.
Effective July 1, 2023, House Bill 1895 (HB 1895) expands the scope of this law in two key ways.
First, HB 1895 provides that these agreements are also prohibited if they have the purpose or effect of concealing details relating to claims of sexual harassment. “Sexual harassment” has the meaning provided in Va. Code § 30-129.4, which defines the term as “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when such conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.”
Second, HB 1895...
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