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On August 24, 2023, the Honorable Philip M. Halpern administered the judicial oath of office to employment lawyer Matthew Weinick, marking Weinick’s appointment to the panel of mediators serving the United States District Court, Southern District of New York. As a panel mediator, Weinick will be randomly selected to serve as a mediator for cases designated for court ordered mediation.

Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution. Rather than the formal, rigid structure of court proceedings, mediation is an informal and confidential way for plaintiffs and defendants to meet to try to reach a settlement of their dispute. Mediators are trained in techniques which can help the parties reach a settlement. More information about mediation in general, is available here.

The Southern District of New York (SDNY) is one of New York’s federal courts. It has jurisdiction over federal cases from counties in New York State such as New York, Bronx, Westchester, Rockland, Sullivan, Orange, and Dutchess. Because of the area it covers, the Southern District of New York has handled many famous court cases, including most recently, the sentencing of President Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, the “deflategate” litigation relating to the NFL, and the prosecution of Bernie Madoff.

Whistleblower retaliation is perhaps one of the most misunderstood employment law claims in New York. Many employees believe a broad whistleblower law protects a variety of employee conduct and that when employees complain about any number of workplace issues, they are automatically protected against retaliation by the employer.

In fact, New York’s whistleblower law is remarkably narrow. The New York employment lawyers at Famighetti & Weinick PLLC have previously blogged about the limitations of New York’s whisteblower statute, codified as New York Labor Law 740. But, on January 22, 2022, the law is set to expand. Today’s Long Island employment law blog explains the changes coming to New York’s whistleblower law.

Under the existing New York whistleblower law, workers in New York were protected against retaliation by employers when employees engaged in certain protected acts. To invoke the protections of the act, employees had to have disclosed an illegal activity of the employer. Further, it was not enough that the employer just engaged in unlawful activity. The violation must have threatened the health or safety of the public or constitute healthcare fraud. In other words, the law’s coverage was remarkably limited.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the federal agency charged with investigating and regulating workplace discrimination. Before filing a lawsuit in court, employees must first file a charge with the EEOC. Each year, the EEOC tracks the cases filed by charge type, meaning the type of the discrimination the employee is alleging. The EEOC has published its 2020 employment discrimination statistics. Today’s Long Island employment law blog takes a closer look at the numbers, and in particular, we take a look at what’s happening in New York.

Overall, across the entire country and the EEOC’s jurisdiction, 67,448 charges were filed. Later, we’ll discuss that there may be factors to consider other than less employees are filing charges, but 2020 marks the fourth straight year of declining charges, and nearly a decade of an overall average decrease in total filings.

New York is following the national trend. In 2020, 2,999 charges were filed, down from 3,220 the year before. This is also the fourth year of declines. The following chart shows that, with the exception of a few upward ticks, the trend has generally been less and less filings since the reporting started in 2009.

Long Island employment lawyers, Peter Famighetti and Matthew Weinick, partners of the employment law firm Famighetti & Weinick PLLC, have been selected to the 2020 New York Metro Super Lawyers list. No more than 5% of the lawyers in New York State are selected by the Super Lawyer’s research team to receive this honor.

Super Lawyers evaluates lawyers in the state who they find have reached a “high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.” The rating service then selects lawyers using a patented process, including surveying lawyers within the state, and independently researching evaluation of candidates and peer reviews.

2020 marks the fifth consecutive year that Famighetti has been selected for the Super Lawyers list. On his selection, Famighetti commented that, “I am so appreciative to be included on the Super Lawyers list, alongside some of the most respected lawyers in the state.” Famighetti further noted that, “I believe that both partners’ selection shows the Firm’s commitment to excellence in the practice of law.”

Long Island employment lawyer, Matthew Weinick, has been selected to chair the Nassau County Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Committee. Founded in 1899 with just nineteen members, the Nassau County Bar Association now boasts nearly 5,000 members.

The Labor and Employment Law committee is tasked with analyzing proposals for new federal and state legislation and regulations relating to employment issues such as employer-employee relations, benefits, and pensions. The committee also reviews judicial decisions concerning employment law matters including discrimination, retaliation, and wage and hour issues.

The committee meets once per month at the association’s Mineola office building, affectionately known by members as “Domus.” Meetings provide committee members the opportunity to discuss the latest developments in employment law. The committee invites a speaker to each meeting, to lead a discussion with members about a particular area of employment law.

El 18 de Marzo de 2020, el presidente Trump promulgó La Ley de Primera Respuesta al Coronavirus de las Familias. La ley establece, entre otras cosas, licencias para empleados relacionados con el coronavirus y entrará en vigencia 15 días a partir del 18 de Marzo. La ley proporciona licencia por enfermedad de emergencia, licencia familiar de emergencia y créditos fiscales. Al igual que la ley de Nueva York sobre la que escribimos en el blog a principios de esta semana, la aplicación de la ley varía según el tamaño del empleador. Los detalles de la ley se analizan a continuación.

La Ley de Primera Respuesta al Coronavirus de las Familias requiere que ciertos empleadores proporcionen a sus empleados licencia remunerada por enfermedad o familia por razones específicas relacionadas con COVID-19. [1] La División de Salarios y Horas del Departamento de Trabajo administra y aplica los requisitos de licencia pagada de la nueva ley. Estas disposiciones se aplicarán desde la fecha de entrada en vigor hasta el 31 de diciembre de 2020.

Aucensia  Por  Enfermedad 

En estos tiempos inciertos, los Neoyorquinos están luchando por encontrar consuelo siempre que sea posible. En el contexto del empleo, los empleados se han enfrentado a preguntas sobre la seguridad laboral, la seguridad de los ingresos y cómo equilibrar las instrucciones para quedarse en casa del gobierno y los intentos de los empleadores de mantener sus negocios en funcionamiento.

El 18 de Marzo del 2020, la ley fue firmada por el gobernador de Nueva York, Andrew Cuomo, promulgaría leyes para otorgar licencias y licencias por enfermedad pagadas por ausencias laborales relacionadas con el coronavirus. El blog de derecho laboral de Long Island de hoy discute las disposiciones de la ley.

Empleados sujetos a cuarantena mandatoria o cuarentena precaucinarias ordenado por el Estata de Nueva York , Departamento de Salud o culaquier entidad gubernamental debidamente authorizada para emitar dicha orden, tendra derecho a licencia por enfermedada pagada de la siguente manera:

Long Island employment lawyers Famighetti & Weinick PLLC have started a new “Lockdown Video series.”  The series will address emerging employment law issues created because of the Covid-19 / coronavirus epidemic. As videos become available, they will be posted to this blog.

Episode 1: Must Healthcare Workers Report to Work if not Given Protective Equipment?

On March 18, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.  The law provides for, among other things, leave for employees related to the coronavirus and becomes effective 15 days from March 18.  The act provides emergency sick leave, emergency family leave, and tax credits. Like the New York law we blogged about earlier this week, the law’s application varies depending on employer size.  The specifics of the law are discussed below.

Sick Leave

The law provides for paid sick leave for some employees.  Preliminarily, this portion of the law applies only to employers with less than 500 employees.  As to employers who meet this number requirement, employees may qualify for paid sick leave if they meet any of these requirements:

Better late than never. Long Island employment law firm Famighetti & Weinick PLLC is excited to announce the addition of team member, Elisa. Elisa joins the firm as our paralegal. Although we’re approaching Elisa’s one year anniversary, we’ve all been so busy that we weren’t able to write an official welcome blog, until today.

Elisa’s value to the firm and to our clients is self-evident. Before her hire, Elisa studied criminal justice at Excelsior College. Her coursework included instruction about the United States court system, immigration, juvenile justice, criminal law, and ethics, coursework which aligns with the firm’s values of providing legal services to vulnerable segments of the population.

Elisa also received her paralegal studies certificate from Hofstra University. At Hofstra, Elisa learned skills which she puts to work everyday, including research and writing, and civil litigation procedures. Her substantive law classes included contracts, real estate, family law, business organizations, and Wills, Trusts, and Estates.

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