The Essential - May 2025 Edition | EveryBusiness HR Essentials, Inc

The Essential – May 2025 Edition

View this email in your browser

May 2025 // Volume 14 // Issue 2

SPRING UPDATE

Hello Clients and Friends,

Welcome to the Spring Edition of the Essential!

In this issue, we have some California-related updates, state sick leave updates, important information related to immigration, and much more! Ongoing changes in Trump administration policies will likely have further effects on immigration and labor. Because of the number of legal challenges to these policies, employers will need to stay vigilant on updates.

Our next newsletter will be released August 1.

Enjoy and be well,

Sonya L. Kemp-Willson – Founder and President

EEO-1 Form Reporting Update

All employers with 100 or more U.S. employees are required to submit an EEO-1 report to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) annually. This report provides data on a company’s employee demographics.The EEOC has submitted the 2024 filing period and other documents to the Office of Management and Budget for approval, and it is expected that the portal to submit the EEO-1 form will open on May 20, 2025. The EEOC has also submitted for approval the revised Instruction Booklet for EEO-1 reporting. The revised booklet would eliminate the option for reporting on individuals as non-binary as their gender and instead require employers to file employees as either male or female. The reporting period should be the payroll period from October 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024.

Immigration and the Workplace

With Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducting workplace raids and I-9 audits, several organizations provide guidance for employers on what to do if ICE appears at your worksite or notifies you of an audit. Below we share some links to these resources, but in general:

Ensure your I-9s have been properly completed and any corresponding documents are in order.
Work with an immigration attorney especially if you have a high population of immigrant workers.
Provide resources to your workers to help them navigate the complex ever-changing immigration process.

Download this infographic courtesy of the National Immigration Law Center and National Employment Law Project

Visit the National Immigration Law Center’s Guide for Employers

Employer Guidance for Workplace Interactions with ICE courtesy of the National Law Review

Court Approves Prospective CA
Meal Period Waivers

When a California employee voluntarily skips their meal period if working a shift of six hours or less, many companies require the employee to complete a meal period waiver. This prevents claims that the company did not allow the employee to take the required meal period when working shifts of five hours or more. To avoid the administrative burden of completing this form every time a meal period is skipped, companies will provide a prospective meal period waiver upon the start of employment. However, it was uncertain whether this practice was allowable.A recent court case found in favor of the employer that use of such prospective meal waiver was enforceable as long as it is not unreasonable or coerced. This means that employers must not induce an employee to sign the waiver, make false claims about the waiver, or neglect to provide an option for the employee to fully revoke the waiver at any time.This ruling is a win for employers who want to provide a one-time waiver to avoid the administrative burden of providing the waiver each time an employee works six hours or less in a workday. Employers must include the option for an employee to revoke the waiver.

Predictive Scheduling Expands to
Los Angeles County July 1, 2025

The City of Los Angeles’ Fair Work Week Ordinance, which includes predictive scheduling requirements became effective April 1, 2023. Similar to the City ordinance, the County’s ordinance, which will go into effect July 1, affects retail businesses with over 300 employees globally, but that headcount includes workers employed by staffing firms and franchisees. The County’s ordinance applies to employees who work for a covered retailer in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County for at least two hours or more per week.Predictive scheduling requires covered retailers to publish a work schedule at least 14 days in advance and providing a written good faith estimate of an employee’s work schedule if requested by the employee. Among other rules, it prevents employers from requiring employees to find coverage for certain shifts.

DEI in the Private Sector

In case you didn’t catch our LinkedIn post, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have issued guidance on potential workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)-related discrimination.The current federal administration has challenged DEI efforts through controversial executive actions aimed at limiting workplace diversity programs. In his first week in office, President Trump signed two major executive orders restricting what he viewed as “illegal” DEI activities within federal agencies and private businesses. Additionally, leadership changes at the EEOC — including the appointment of Andrea Lucas as Acting Chair — signaled a tougher stance on DEI initiatives.These actions have faced legal pushback. In February, a federal court in Maryland blocked parts of the new DEI restrictions. However, on March 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit lifted that block, allowing the administration to enforce its new rules while legal challenges continue. The court found that while the way the executive orders are enforced might be unconstitutional, the orders themselves are not automatically illegal.Because the executive orders are vague about what counts as “illegal DEI,” and with lawsuits still ongoing, many employers are confused about whether and how they can continue their DEI efforts. To help clarify, on March 19, the EEOC and the DOJ released two technical assistance documents. These explain that DEI programs could violate Title VII—which bans discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin—if employers make decisions based on these protected traits.For key takeaways of the guidance documents, as well as links to the documents, please see this article courtesy of law firm Hixson Nagatani.

New State Paid Sick Leave Laws

New state paid sick leave laws are continuing to grow. Missouri enacted a new paid sick leave law effective May 1, 2025 requiring 40 hours or 56 hours of sick leave annually depending on headcount of employees in the state. Note: there is currently a legal challenge to the law.Nebraska’s paid sick leave law, expected to go into effect October 1, 2025, is also under legal challenge. It would require one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked up to cap of 40 or 56 hours, depending on a company’s total headcount.Alaska’s sick and safe leave law will take effect July 1, 2025, with a similar law to Nebraska’s. Employers in the above states should keep watch for any delays or changes in the laws.A summary of current state sick leave laws in effect can be found here.

CA WORKPLACE VIOLENCE
PREVENTION PLAN TRAINING

As a reminder to California employers, last year the the majority of employers in California had to establish, implement, and maintain a Workplace Violence Prevention Plan, which included training, by July 1. Training must be provided to new hires and then annually thereafter. Training must also be provided if there are changes to your plan, which should be evaluated periodically and after a workplace violence incident. Now is a good time to revisit your plan and training to determine whether you need to make any changes.

Questions? Contact Us!

We invite you to reach out to us for support on matters such as reviewing your employee handbook, crafting policies, employee relations issues, benefits management, scheduling and training employees on Harassment Prevention Training, or any other HR matters. Please feel to reach out to us at [email protected] for support.Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and X.

Key Dates

Monday, May 5 – Cinco de Mayo
Sunday, May 11 – Mother’s Day
Monday, May 26 – Memorial Day
Thursday, June 5 – World Environment Day
Sunday, June 15 – Father’s Day
Thursday, June 19 – Juneteenth
Friday, June 20 – First Day of Summer
Wednesday, June 25 – Islamic New Year (sundown)
Friday, July 4 – Independence Day

This publication is intended to provide general information only and is not intended as a source of legal advice. You should not assume that any information included applies to your specific situation. Accordingly, you should not use this information as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed attorney.