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Quick Hits The Rhode Island General Assembly wrapped up its 2026 legislative session on June 11, 2026, after passing several bills impacting employers. New enactments address grocery store self-service checkouts and employee monitors, provide warehouse worker protections, and expand Rhode Island’s Fair Employment Practices Act to cover domestic workers. Lawmakers failed to pass some notable proposals, including bills that would have regulated AI use and electronic monitoring in workplaces, provided…

Quick Hits The South Carolina Supreme Court recently held that an employer was not liable on theories of negligent hiring, supervision, or retention regarding an employee who had already been granted criminal immunity under the state’s “castle doctrine” after fatally shooting a customer during a workplace confrontation. The court’s reasoning centered on a critical distinction: when an employee’s use of force is determined to be lawful and justified, there is…

The changes—part of a broader EU simplification push following a provisional agreement reached between the Parliament, Council, and Commission on 7 May 2026—push back key compliance deadlines, introduce an outright ban on artificial intelligence (AI) tools used to generate nonconsensual intimate imagery, and resolve a long-standing overlap in the rules governing AI used in industrial machinery. The EU Council still needs to sign off before any of this takes legal…

Quick Hits Regulatory inspections and investigations under Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) take several forms, including proactive and reactive visits by Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MOL) inspectors who are empowered to enforce compliance with the OHSA and protect worker health and safety. MOL inspectors have broad enforcement powers, including entering a workplace without a warrant or prior notice. Beyond the obligations established by the…

Quick Hits A nonprofit has sued DOL under FOIA to compel disclosure of federal contractors’ 2021 and 2022 Type 2 EEO-1 data, the most recent reporting years targeted by such a request. The suit mirrors an earlier case in California, Center for Investigative Reporting v. U.S. Department of Labor, where the same type of FOIA request for contractor EEO-1 data led to disclosure of the 2016 through 2020 reports. The…

Quick Hits A number of states passed new laws in 2026 related to paid and unpaid leave, employment discrimination, child labor, noncompete clauses, and pay transparency, among other things. These new state laws will take effect on July 1, 2026, unless otherwise noted. See our article, “2026 Midyear State and Local Minimum Wage Increases,” for a roundup of changes to state minimum wage rates taking effect in mid-2026. Arkansas In…

Quick Hits USCIS will continue to accept adjustment of status filings based on the Final Action Dates for Filing Chart in July 2026. Visas are unavailable for the remainder of the fiscal year for EB-2 applicants from India. EB-4 Certain Religious Workers (SR) is showing priority dates again due to the program’s extension to September 30, 2026. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that it would continue to…

Quick Hits An MSA is a contract in which both the employer and the employee agree to end the employment relationship by mutual consent, often involving an additional payment from the employer in exchange for a release of claims. MSAs are particularly useful in jurisdictions with stringent termination laws and can help employers avoid prolonged disputes or litigation by securing releases of potential employment claims. A best practice for employers…