Worldwide: Employment and HR

Employers increasingly rely on AI-enabled recruiting tools to streamline hiring, but these technologies introduce new litigation risks under employment discrimination laws and emerging AI regulations. Understanding the legal landscape, discovery implications, and governance strategies is essential for organizations implementing AI-assisted hiring systems.

A California federal court ruled that plaintiffs cannot avoid arbitration simply by labeling their claims as "sexual harassment." The decision requires plaintiffs to plausibly allege conduct that actually constitutes sexual harassment under governing law before the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act applies. This ruling establishes important limits on attempts to circumvent arbitration agreements through strategic claim labeling.

On August 21, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of the Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) published a Final Rule on Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. The Final Rule goes into effect on September 21 and eliminates several established disability-related requirements instrumental to federal contractors and subcontractors’ compliance programs.

The parties had spent plenty of time talking about the law, the facts, and the value of the claims. In the end, what mattered most to the employee was hearing someone acknowledge that the situation had been handled poorly.

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.

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.

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...

On September 8, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) issued “Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2026-03” to clarify compliance with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) and nonquantitative treatment limitations (NQTL). Under the 2013 final rule implementing MHPAEA, health plans and issuers must use comparable processes, strategies, evidentiary standards, or other factors when applying NQTLs and they cannot apply such methods more stringently to benefits for mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) compared to benefits for general medical and surgical care. While the bulletin doesn’t break much new ground on compliance, it does reaffirm existing enforcement priorities and expectations.

The EPA has released its draft risk evaluation for ethylene dibromide under TSCA, identifying unreasonable risks to workers and occupational non-users from inhalation and dermal exposure across ten conditions of use. With a February 2027 court-ordered deadline looming, EPA must navigate public comments, peer review, and finalize the evaluation while broader questions remain about the agency's approach to assessing worker risks and coordinating with OSHA on risk management.

The Labor Department faces a regulatory dilemma as it moves to restrict ESG considerations in 401(k) plans while simultaneously seeking to expand access to private-market investments. This tension creates uncertainty for plan sponsors who must navigate conflicting policy objectives, particularly as many private investment strategies inherently incorporate both financial returns and social or environmental goals.

Twenty-two multiemployer pension plans (MEPPs), representing more than 25,000 participants, have filed suit against the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that the agency improperly denied them access to billions of dollars in emergency retirement funding.

No retroactive refund required. FAQ Part 74 confirms that employers are not required to provide retroactive rewards or remove tobacco surcharges for the period before a participant completes...