Worldwide: Employment and HR

New York State has enacted sweeping changes to employee personnel record requirements, mandating that employers provide free access to personnel files, notify employees of negative information within 10 days, and retain records for three years post-employment. These new obligations fundamentally reshape how New York employers must manage and maintain employee documentation.

On September 9, 2026, Governor Kathy Hochul signed Senate Bill S3460 (A.2107), creating for the first time a statewide right for New York employees and former employees to access...

On August 26, 2026, NLRB General Counsel Crystal S. Carey issued Memorandum GC 26-04, “Further Guidance Regarding General Counsel Priorities.” The memo is her second in as many months and reads like a punch list for reversing the Board’s Biden-era precedent. For employers, the headline is simple: nothing has changed yet, but a lot may be about to.

The traditional reception model assumed someone was physically present at a front desk. That structure is less practical for solo, virtual, hybrid, and small practices, where one person often wears every hat. Smaller firms are separating reception work from physical office presence, driven by operational necessity rather than enthusiasm for remote work itself.

A mid-sized manufacturing company facing financial turmoil after a private equity acquisition found itself struggling with employee turnover, delayed accounting, and unreliable financial reporting. When traditional support failed to deliver the hands-on assistance needed, a specialized advisory team stepped in to restore financial clarity and guide the business from crisis to profitability.

Peyton Recer, a summer associate in Foley's Tampa office, shares her journey from earning degrees at the University of Florida to attending University of Miami School of Law. She discusses her approach to law school success, her summer associate experience, and offers valuable insights on networking and relationship building for aspiring legal professionals.

A recent California lawsuit alleges that AI-based employee selection tools discriminated against workers on protected leave and those with disabilities during a reduction in force. The case highlights critical legal risks for employers deploying AI in high-stakes employment decisions, particularly around how AI systems handle productivity metrics for employees who are absent or working under accommodations.

When workforce reductions happen in multiple waves across related corporate entities, how does federal law treat them in the aggregate? The recent Ubisoft layoffs at Red Storm Entertainment in North Carolina illustrate critical compliance questions under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act that every employer must understand before implementing workforce changes.

A federal district court ruling in Tennessee has determined that fully remote employees do not establish a "single site of employment" under the federal WARN Act, creating uncertainty for employers navigating workforce reductions in an increasingly remote-first business environment. With lower courts divided on this issue and no appellate guidance yet available, the legal landscape for WARN Act compliance in distributed workforces remains unsettled and fact-dependent.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division issued an opinion letter addressing whether meal periods remain noncompensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act when employees must spend part of that time walking to designated break areas. The opinion examines a detention facility's policy requiring 3-7 minutes of travel each way during 60-minute meal periods, and whether this travel time converts the entire break into compensable work time.

Directs the Department of War and Department of Veterans Affairs to establish continuous sharing of military personnel and medical records, deploy AI-enabled tools to streamline veterans...

The DOL's latest MHPAEA guidance provides plan sponsors with a practical roadmap for mental health parity compliance reviews, highlighting three key enforcement focus areas and identifying red flags in both written plan provisions and operational practices. While offering limited nonenforcement relief for certain portions of the 2024 Final Rule, the agency emphasizes continued enforcement of core statutory requirements...