Fowler White - Employment & Immigration eNews

Administrative Changes Will Create Opportunities for Startups

As we recently reported, on November 20, 2014, the President announced a series of executive actions broadly covering immigration law. One such action relates to the implementation of a parole system for inventors, researchers and founders of start-up enterprises. Although the majority of details on this and the other executive actions are not yet available, and an application process has not yet been implemented, the information we do have shows promise for the expansion of opportunities for foreign entrepreneurs in the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson released a memo outlining how the President’s policy changes will support U.S. economic growth.

To read the full summary click here or for more information contact Haley R. Ayure in our Tampa, Fl. (BMO Harris Plaza) office.

Final Issue: Employment & Immigration eNews

As we've previously highlighted, Fowler White Boggs and Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney merged on March 14, 2014. Since that day we have made great progress in becoming one united firm. After January 1, 2015, you will begin to receive eNews alerts from our Buchanan email address, advisory@announcement.bipc.com.

In addition to receiving the same great information from many of our 500+ attorneys, you will be invited to register for other industry and service specific emails. We will email you with more information about other advisories and alerts in January.

To learn more about our expanded employment and immigration capabilities, please click here.

New Visa Rules Could Allow Spouses to Hold Jobs

Thousands of foreign-born residents cannot work in the United States because their partners were brought here on a special visa for highly skilled workers, but that appears ready to change. President Obama's recent executive action on immigration supported a pending rule that allows some of these spouses a chance to work.
Read full story at The Boston Globe.

Appeals Court Says Volunteers Can Qualify as Employees

The federal Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently decided that volunteering Catholic nuns were not "employees" entitled to religious discrimination protections (Sister Michael Marie v. American Red Cross). The Court noted that it is possible for a monetarily uncompensated volunteer to legally qualify as an employee.
Read full story at The Huffington Post.

NLRB Rules Employers Can't Stop Worker E-Mails to Organize Unions

In a decision aimed at bringing labor law up to speed with workplace technology, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that workers can use an employer's email system for union organization. The NLRB's ruling stemmed from a case that the Communications Workers of America union brought in 2012 after it came up short in its attempt to organize employees of Purple Communications Inc., in Rocklin, Calif., a company that provides interpreting services for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Read full story at Fortune.

High Court Says No Need to Pay Workers for Security Screening Time

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a temp agency was not required to pay workers at Amazon warehouses for the time they spent waiting to go through a security screening at the end of the day. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the court, said the screenings were not "integral and indispensable" to the workers' jobs, which involved retrieving products from warehouse shelves and packaging them for delivery to Amazon's customers.
Read full story at The New York Times.

Appeals Court Rules Against DOL Use of H-2B Private Wage Surveys

The Labor Department's use of 2009 guidance allowing private employer surveys to determine prevailing wages under the H-2B program is arbitrary and capricious and must be vacated, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled. Overturning a Pennsylvania district court's determination that the case wasn't ripe for review, the appeals court said just because the DOL is planning to engage in further rulemaking on the issue doesn't mean that it hasn't finalized its 2009 guidance.
Read full story at Bloomberg BNA.

Firms Grapple with Employees Allowed to Bring Guns to Work

Private employers used to create their own rules about guns on their property, but in 2004 Oklahoma changed its law so that private employers could no longer ban workers from storing firearms in locked vehicles at work. In the legal fight that followed, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the gun owners and the National Rifle Association, and more states began adopting these "parking lot" laws.
Read full story at NPR.

Employers Beginning to Take on Health Care Quality Standards

Employer-provided coverage is the backbone of the U.S. health system, with more than half of Americans getting insurance through work, but most businesses are reluctant to manage medical providers as they might other key suppliers. Boeing and other major employers, including Starbucks and Costco, have aggressively pushed local hospitals and doctors to meet the kinds of rigorous standards they use to build airplanes or brew coffee.
Read full story at Los Angeles Times.

Small Business Owners Turning to ACA as Health Care Option

For two decades Atlanta restaurant owner Jim Dunn offered a group health plan to his managers and helped pay for it, but that ended Dec. 1, after the Affordable Care Act made him an offer he couldn't refuse. The number of other owners who make the same decision will help set the future of small-business health insurance.
Read full story at Kaiser Health News.

Employee Perks Questioned for Fueling Culture of Overwork

Attracting talent with enticements like a constantly refreshed selection of gourmet snacks, refrigerators stocked with limitless free drinks, designer fitness classes, top-end ergonomic furniture, games arcades or, even, a "puppytorium" for workers' pampered pooches has become the hallmark of cutting edge tech firms. It's possible these enticements contribute to a growing culture of overwork.
Read full story at BBC News.

Congress Set to Ease Truck Drivers' Rest Rules

Congress is poised to roll back safety rules aimed at ensuring truck drivers get enough rest, ignoring the pleas of consumer activists and U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. The provision, added to budget legislation to fund the U.S. government through the fiscal year, would temporarily suspend rules that took effect last year while a study is conducted about the number of trucks driven on congested roads.
Read full story at Bloomberg.