It is that time of year again. People wish for peace on earth (except for trial lawyers who relish contentious court battles). Some people make New Year’s resolutions that they often forget about by mid-January. I take out my crystal ball and gaze into the not-too-distant future and predict what trends we likely will see in employment law in the year to come.
Last year my crystal ball was spot-on, predicting stricter scrutiny of employers by governmental agencies such as OSHA (involving workplace health and safety), the U.S. and States Departments of Labor (involving wage and hour matters), and the EEOC and state civil rights agencies (dealing with hostile work environment and other forms of discrimination). The crystal ball also foresaw increased litigation involving sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. We also predicted flexible workweek policies and practices being an important employee benefit and an increase in employee misclassification cases where employers attempt to treat non-exempt workers as coming within one of the white-collar exemptions to the overtime laws.
