February 1, 2012 is the Deadline to Provide New York Wage Notices, and Other New York Laws to Keep Your Eyes on in 2012

on Jan 25 in Discrimination, Policies, Practice & Procedure, Reasonable Accomodation, Wage/Hour tagged by Anthony Rao

The February 1, 2012 deadline to provide wage notices to your employees in New York is fast approaching.  The forms can be found here.

Other 2012 new labor and employment laws and regulations to keep your eyes on that may affect your New York business are as follows:

-Under the Workplace Religious Freedom Act (WRFA) which amended the City’s Human Rights Law, it is harder for employers to meet the “undue hardship” defense with respect to reasonably accommodating the religious practices of an employee or applicant.  In short, the federal de minimis standard does not apply.  Rather, the WRFA defines “undue hardship” as “an accommodation requiring significant expense or difficulty (including a significant interference with the safe or efficient operation of the workplace or a violation of a bona fide seniority system).”  Various factors should be evaluated such as cost and the number of affected employees.  Generally, employers can establish undue hardship by showing that a requested accommodation will result in the inability of the employees to perform the essential functions of their jobs.

-The summary judgment standard for City Human Rights discrimination cases no longer requires a plaintiff to establish a prima facie case when a defendant presents evidence of a nondiscriminatory reason for its action.  The focus now is on whether plaintiff can prove the defendant’s reasons are pretext.  If the plaintiff responds with some evidence that at least one of the reasons proffered by defendant is false, misleading, or incomplete, “such evidence of pretext should in almost every case indicate to the court that a motion for summary judgment must be denied.”  Bennett v. Health Management Systems, Inc. 2011 WL 6347918 (N.Y.A.D. 1 Dept., Dec. 20, 2011).

-The “Employee Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act” Poster must be posted in nearly all union and non-union workplaces (with some exceptions) on or before April 30, 2012.  Frequently asked questions (such as the types of non-union employers with minimal interstate commerce that must comply) and the form notice can be found here.

-The U.S. Department of Labor Administrative Review Board voted that the whistleblower provision of Title VIII of Sarbanes-Oxley has no extraterritorial application.

-The Low Income Support Obligation and Performance Improvement Act requires employers to report whether health insurance benefits are available to employees’ dependents in their quarterly wage reports.

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