Workplace Now: The ‘Localization’ of Employment Law – What You Don’t Know Can Hurt

It is no secret these days that many workforces, particularly over the last five years, are now subject to numerous state and municipal laws that seek to shape and regulate numerous areas of the workplace (many of which are often conflicting) . Given the gridlock that has been in place for almost a decade in Congress, state legislatures and cities have accelerated their oversight of employers and have imposed their own laws.

In fact, there are literally hundreds of examples of how the scope of local regulation has changed, but perhaps the most breath-taking took place this year in the “City of Brotherly Love” when Philadelphia created the legal authority to shutdown a business located within its confines, for an undefined period of time, if the business “severely” or “repeatedly” violates its anti-discrimination laws under a bill signed into law on June 22. Besides the questionable constitutionality of this law, one of the major drawbacks with respect to many  “local…