Construction Worker’s Damages Award Significantly Reduced on Appeal
Last month, in Fortune v New York City Hous. Auth. (2022 NY Slip Op 00169), the Second Department heard an appeal to reduce damages awarded to a construction worker after a co-worker fell on him on a job in Brooklyn in 2016. The defendants, which included the New York City Housing Authority, argued that previously decided cases involving similar ...
Part-Time Rapper And Husband Charged With Conspiring To Launder Billions In Stolen Bitcoin
Earlier this month, federal agents seized over $3.6 billion of stolen Bitcoin and arrested Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan for conspiring to launder the cryptocurrency stolen in 2016 from Bitfinex, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange. It is the largest financial seizure in the U.S. Department of Justice's history. According to the ...
SEC Focuses on Cybersecurity for Public Companies, Proposes Rules to Enhance Cybersecurity for Advisers and Funds
The effort to keep up in the cybersecurity race seems to be a constant challenge for everyone these days. In a speech this past January to the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law's Annual Securities Regulation Institute, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler focused on the importance of cybersecurity, including the prevalence ...
U.S. Soccer and the Women’s National Team Reach $24 Million Settlement
On February 22, 2022, the U.S. Soccer Federation and players on the women's national team reached a $24 million settlement, ending a six-year battle over equal pay and pay discrimination in the sport. U.S. Soccer has agreed to pay $22 million to the players as back pay and $2 million to "benefit U.S. national women's team players in their ...
Class Action Trend: Sunscreen Manufacturers Continue To Be Pounded Over Reef Safety Claims
Since September 2021, at least 10 class actions have been brought against various sunscreens manufacturers, all challenging claims made on the front label about the safety of the sunscreens to coral reefs. Some of the brands challenged include popular household brands, such as Banana Boat, Hawaiian Tropic, Kroger, and Target's Up & Up. All ...
Changes To Baby Food Loom On the Horizon: Perrigo Agrees To Reduce Lead In Infant Formula Products
On February 4, 2021, the United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform's Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy issued its "Baby Foods Are Tainted with Dangerous Levels of Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium, and Mercury" report, On February 4, 2021, the United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and ...
Immigrant Detainees Win Retrial In $1-A-Day Wage Case
In a big win for immigrant detainees, a federal jury found that private prison GEO Group ("GEO") broke Washington employment law by paying immigrant detainees only a dollar-a-day for labor performed at an ICE detention center in Washington. The work was performed as part of GEO's work program, which paid detainees a dollar-a-day to clean floors, ...
Fake Covid Test Scams: Four Tell-Tale Signs To Watch Out For
The FTC recently issued a warning that they have seen an uptick in the online sale of fake at-home Covid testing kits. To avoid falling prey to these scam artists, consider taking the following steps: 1) Check to make sure that the test you are purchasing is authorized by the FDA. A list of approved Antigen tests can be found here and a list ...
New York City to Require Salary Transparency in Job Postings
On January 15, 2022, the New York City Council enacted an amendment to the New York City Human Rights Law—already one of, if not the, most expansive anti-discrimination statutes nationwide—which will require employers to list salary information in job postings. The new law is part of an effort to address pay inequity through transparency. ...
New Webinars to aid workers with COVID-19 Workers’ Compensation Claims
New York State is offering online educational opportunities to help workers who believe they contracted COVID-19 due to exposure at work. These educational webinars are available through the New York Workers' Compensation Board and will provide information on filing a claim, loss of earnings, and medical benefits. These webinars are free and ...
SEC Revisits Pay-Versus-Performance
On January 27, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") reopened the public comment period regarding "pay-versus-performance." The rules, originally proposed in 2015, would require companies to disclose information relating to the relationship between executive compensation paid and the company's financial performance. The ...
EMPLOYEES ARE ENTITLED TO EXPRESS BREAST MILK AT WORK
Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, more commonly known as Labcorp, must implement changes across more than 2,000 locations to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act's (FLSA) lactation requirements. These changes were prompted by the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division's investigation and findings that Labcorp did not secure ...
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce Considers the Energy Impact of Blockchains
On January 20, 2022, The House Committee on Energy and Commerce discussed the long-term effects of the proof-of-work, energy-intensive method for verifying transactions used by blockchains such as bitcoin. During the hearing it was discussed how some cryptocurrency mining facilities have been working to incorporate renewable energy sources ...
NYC Passes Sweeping Reforms to City Building Codes
In late 2021, the New York City Council passed legislation implementing thousands of updates to the city's building code. The building code is an extensive set of rules and regulations that protect construction workers and regular New Yorkers, both while a building is being constructed and after it is finished. In the construction phase, updates ...
California Supreme Court Gives Preference to Employee-Friendly State Law Framework Rather Than Burden-Shifting Test Under Federal Law
On January 27, 2022, the California Supreme Court, the state's highest court, penned a decision backing the use of state law when evaluating whistleblower retaliation claims brought under the state's labor code as opposed to the burden-shifting test commonly used in federal discrimination cases. Under Section 1102.6 of the California Labor ...
Epic Games Argues for Reversal of Post-Trial Ruling for Apple
The video game creator, Epic, filed its appellate brief seeking to overturn a ruling for Apple in its antitrust case alleging that the company has unlawfully made itself the exclusive distributor for all apps usable on the iPhone (iOS apps) and wrongfully imposed on app developers its "in-app payment solution," with a 30% commission to Apple, ...
Martin Shkreli Ordered to Return $64 Million in Drug Profits; Banned from Pharmaceutical Industry for Life
On January 14, 2022, a federal judge ordered pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli to return $64.6 million worth of profits he made from hiking the price of the lifesaving drug, Daraprim, and banned Shkreli from ever working in the industry again. U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote said in her opinion that Shkreli, often known as "Pharma ...
Construction Pension Fund Survives Motion to Dismiss Against Software Company
The Construction Industry and Laborers Joint Pension Trust ("Pension Trust"), a pension trust based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Lead Plaintiff in the case Construction Industry and Laborers Joint Pension Trust v. Carbonite, Inc., Docket No. 1:19-cv-11662-LTS (D. Mass.), recently won an appeal to overturn the District Court for the District ...
Vax-or-Test Rule Moves Forward
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an Emergency Temporary Standard, the Vax-or-Test Rule, that mandates employers to either require employees to be vaccinated or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing. OSHA will begin enforcing its emergency temporary standard on January 10, 2022. However, OSHA is giving employers ...
COVID-19 Can Be A Disability, Per New EEOC Guidance
Since the term "Coronavirus" first entered the public lexicon, one of several questions to plague employees, employers, and employment attorneys alike has been: "Is COVID-19 a disability?" The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") recently issued guidance on this very question, providing a both expected and unsatisfying answer: ...