Year in review: a look back at employment law news of 2014.

AuthorO'Brien, Michael Patrick
PositionLegal Brief

Now that 2015 is well underway, it's time to answer a few important questions in regards to employment law: Where have we been? What have we done? And where are we going? These questions were addressed frequently in many of the employment law updates I saw in early 2015. Let's take a look back at 2014 by answering these questions below.

Loud Whistles in 2014

Someone actually kept track of the top 10 recent whistleblowing and retaliation events. And no, I'm not talking about the plot lines of Breaking Bad, Mad Men or Downton Abbey. Some of these big events involved legal issues. For example, one court made claims easier for employees, one made them harder, and one made them more difficult for foreign plaintiffs. Some articles focused on numbers (e.g. a $3 million verdict here, a $6 million judgment there), while another discussed how identifying a whistleblower can itself be retaliation.

Other articles I've seen focused on firsts: the first claim under the Dodd-Frank financial reform statute or the first U.S. Supreme Court decision under the Sarbanes-Oxley law (SOX), which ruled SOX applies to employees of a public company's private subcontractors. The top development, though, was the award of $30 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to a tipster who led the SEC to a successful enforcement action.

Whistleblowing was popular in 2014, and we will hear more--and louder--whistles in 2015.

Top 10 Safety Issues

HRFIero.com gave us the scoop on the workplace problems about which Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued the most citations last year. They are: (1) fall protection in construction; (2) labeling and communicating about hazardous materials; (3) construction platform planking access/railings; (4) respiratory protection; (5) lockout/tagout hazards--ensuring equipment does not activate when an employee is in harm's way; (6) safety requirements for operating industrial trucks; (7) electrical wiring issues--ensuring cords and cables are protected from damage during work; (8) unsafe use of ladders; (9) machine guards; and (10) the standard regarding the marking and guarding of electrical circuits and equipment.

Regulators on the Move

There was a lot of 2014 action from national regulators. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) took on severance agreements and said sexual orientation and gender identity are already covered by the protected class of gender. The EEOC also issued a guidance saying...

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