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Owen Davis

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Owen assists employers across industry sectors – from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations – to identify changing workplace law at a local, state and federal level. He offers legal guidance on employment agreements, restrictive covenants, personnel policies and other human resources issues. Owen also represents employers before state and federal courts as well as administrative agencies on matters related to discrimination, retaliation, harassment, and wage and hour violations.

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Keypoint: After a January hearing, New York City continues to consider comments to a new law regulating employers’ use of automated employment decision tools, with enforcement to begin “in the coming months.”

New York City moves closer to implementing Local Law 144, the first major U.S. law governing the use of AI employment technologies. On January 23, 2023, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), the agency charged with enforcing the law, held a second public hearing on the law’s proposed rules to address several ambiguities related to key definitions and the scope of the law. Within the past week, the DCWP published a transcript of the hearing and announced that it would finalize its rules and begin enforcement “in the coming months.”…

Continue Reading NYC to Finalize Rules and Begin Regulating AI Employment Tools in Coming Months After Public Hearing

Keypoint: Employers who use automated employment decision tools in New York City will receive additional guidance on complying with Local Law 144 before enforcement begins on April 15, 2023.

New York City employers who use automated employment decision tools (“AEDTs”) now have until April 15, 2023, to prepare for compliance with New York City Local Law 144 which regulates usage of such tools. The law was to go into effect on January 1, 2023.

In the below post, we provide a brief overview of the law and its current rulemaking process.…

Continue Reading New York City Postpones Enforcement of Law Regulating AI Employment Tools

Keypoint: Businesses subject to the CCPA will need to revise their compliance programs before the exemptions expire on January 1, 2023.

As previously reported, the California legislature had been considering multiple bills to extend the employee and business-to-business data exemptions under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). On August 31st, however, the California legislature adjourned without extending the exemptions which automatically expire on January 1, 2023 – the same day the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) goes into effect.

Generally speaking, the current exemptions apply to (1) personal information of job applicants, employees, owners, directors, officers, and independent contractors in the context of the individual’s employment or application for employment and (2) personal information reflecting written and verbal communications or a transaction where the consumer is acting in a business-to-business commercial transaction. With the exemptions set to expire, California will become the first state to apply comprehensive restrictions on the collection and use of such information.

Businesses subject to the CCPA and that have California employees or deal with other California companies will need to engage in substantial efforts to update their privacy programs. We outline some of the necessary steps below.…

Continue Reading California Legislature Fails to Extend CCPA Employee and B2B Data Exemptions

Keypoint: As of May 7, 2022, New York employers that monitor or intercept employee emails, internet usage, or telephone communications must provide written notice to those employees.

On May 7, 2022, an amendment to the New York Civil Rights Act goes into effect that requires private employers with places of business anywhere in the state to provide employees a written notice if the employer monitors or intercepts employee emails, internet access or usage, or telephone conversations. The written notice must communicate that “any and all telephone conversations or transmissions, electronic mail or transmissions, or internet access or usage by an employee by any electronic device or system . . . may be subject to monitoring at any and all times by any lawful means.”…

Continue Reading New York Employee Monitoring Law Goes Into Effect May 7, 2022