As the end of the second year of the second Trump administration draws near, federal agencies are gaining momentum. While immigration enforcement and anti-DEI efforts have garnered the most media attention, other issues impacting the workplace are changing the way employers operate. This Labor Day, Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute takes a look at ten notable developments and trends affecting employment.
The U.S. Department of Labor has had an active year, notably its Wage and Hour Division, which released two proposed rules to regulate independent contractor status under federal wage-and-hour laws (and other laws within its jurisdiction), as well as a standard for joint-employment under those same laws.
The independent contractor proposal largely tracks the final rule issued by the Department in the last days of the first Trump administration. The Biden administration first attempted to delay and later repeal the first Trump rule in its entirety. When that effort was rebuffed by courts, the Biden administration then promulgated a new rule that largely rested on an unweighted multi-factor test which had been administered (not uniformly and not consistently) by various courts. Numerous legal challenges were filed against the Biden rule, but they have been stayed since the start of the new administration when the Department of Labor indicated it would be reconsidering that rule and would likely propose...
Three family members who have accused a man of sexual assault have denied putting their "heads together" to make "false allegations," a jury has heard.