It’s been a busy week for the courts, many of which have weighed in on issues that could affect HR managers and businesses. In Wisconsin, right-to-work laws were challenged, and another case has an analytics firm and LinkedIn facing off. On the national stage, the Affordable Care Act hangs in the balance, leaving small businesses wondering about the future of health insurance for employees.
Keep reading for a recap of what you need to know in HR this week.
What’s Next for Employers and the ACA?
Healthcare has been a hot news topic for most of 2017. However, not much has changed for employers, who must remain compliant with the ACA. SHRM looks further into what’s at stake for employers, both large and small. The employer mandate, definition of a full-time employee, taxes, annual information reporting, and more are subject to change if a new healthcare bill is passed.
Analytics Firm Takes LinkedIn to Court Over Data
A tech startup, hiQ, analyzes public profile data available on LinkedIn profiles. The company has asked a federal court to prevent LinkedIn from blocking its access to the data. LinkedIn claimed it must protect its users from hiQ’s potentially unlawful data misappropriation, while hiQ claimed violates their free speech rights. The firm takes the data, analyzes it, and then sells it to Fortune 500 companies for uses such as determining competitors’ employees to be targeted for recruitment.
U.S. Appeals Court Upholds Wisconsin Right-to-Work Law
An appeals court has upheld Wisconsin’s right-to-work law, which prohibits mandatory union memberships and non-member payment requirements. The law was enacted in 2015 and was challenged by two local affiliates of an engineers’ union. Employers with employees located in Wisconsin should brush up on right-to-work laws, although the ruling means that nothing has changed since 2015.
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