Blogs | WorkSmarts: Workplace Solutions

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced new proposed regulations today that, if adopted, will ban the use of noncompete agreements for most workers nationwide. The proposed Non-Compete Clause Rule will prohibit all employers – regardless of size – from imposing covenants not to compete on employees and independent contractors, with no carve-out available that would permit the use of noncompetes with executives or other highly-compensated workers. The rule is not yet in effect, and if enacted, it will not prohibit the continued use of properly drafted non-disclosure and non-solicitation clauses under federal law.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released a proposed rule to once again update the test to determine whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The proposed rule is intended to replace the 2021 independent contractor regulation. The new 2022 rule largely returns to the “economic realities” test. In publishing the proposed new rule, the DOL emphasized that courts have applied the economic realities test for several decades in interpreting the FLSA. If adopted, the rule could impact certain workers’ eligibility for overtime and minimum wage laws. As a result, employers may need to revisit their existing policies and practices to determine whether workers that they previously characterized as independent contractors should be reclassified as employees.

On August 10, 2022, major changes in Colorado law go into effect for restrictive employment covenants, i.e., covenants not to compete (non-competition covenants) and covenants not to solicit customers of an employee’s former employer (non-solicitation covenants). For many years, Colorado has limited non-competition covenants by statute, Colorado Revised Statutes §8-2-113, which prohibits non-competition covenants with specified exceptions, including when they are part of a contract for sale of a business. The most frequent and heavily litigated exception in the old law permitted an employer to require non-competition covenants for executive and management personnel, and for officers and employees who constitute professional staff to such personnel. Courts and parties frequently wrestled with the question whether an employee had been an “executive” or “management” personnel of the former employer.

On Friday June 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision that overrules Roe v. Wade. See Dobbs et al. v. Jackson Women’s Health Org. et al., Case No. 19-1392 (slip opinion). According to the decision, the federal constitution does not bestow the right to an abortion or protect an individual woman’s personal liberty interest concerning the same, but rather each state may fully regulate and outright ban or criminalize procedures as each state sees fit. As is discussed further below, this decision has important implications for employers that will now need to carefully review and potentially tailor their policies to accommodate individual states’ varying views on the legality and morality of abortion and individual liberty interests.