Welcome to Labor of Law, our weekly summary of news and trends affecting the L&E community. Punching in this week:

• NY’s ‘groundbreaking’ harassment legislation • NLRB’s ‘Cordúa’ ruling has arrived • Headlines: New suit against Jones Day; DOJ v. EEOC; Bitmojis on your résumé? • Moves & new hires: Immigration practices get boost

I’m Mike Scarcella in Washington, and you can reach me at [email protected]and on Twitter @MikeScarcella. Thanks for reading!

N.Y. ‘Changes the Landscape’ for Harassment, Discrimination

Legislation to bolster protections for victims of sexual harassment in the workplace in New York and lower hurdles for those individuals to seek judicial recourse was signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (above) this week, my colleague Dan M. Clark reports at Law.com. All private employers, regardless of size, are affected by the law. The new law “drastically” changes the landscape for employers, according to a Hunton Andrews Kurth advisory. A few highlights:

• “The law profoundly alters the landscape of harassment claims in New York and how employers should be prepared to handle them. Key provisions include eliminating the ‘severe or pervasive’ standard for discriminatory and retaliatory harassment cases, prohibiting mandatory arbitration for all discrimination claims (not just sexual harassment), and banning non-disclosure agreements for all discrimination claims,” Kelley Drye & Warren said in an advisory. The firm called the new law “groundbreaking.”

• The new law extends the amount of time victims have to pursue claims of sexual harassment through a complaint with the state Division of Human Rights. Victims previously only had a year to pursue those claims through the state agency. They’ll now have three years, which is the same amount of time victims have to pursue claims in court.

• “The standard has also changed: whether an employee was the subject of discrimination is viewed through the eyes of a reasonable victim of discrimination who is a member of the same protected class,” Thompson Hine LLP said in an advisory. The firm said the new law “changes the landscape” of workplace discrimination and harassment litigation in New York.

NLRB’s ‘Cordúa’ Arbitration Ruling

The National Labor Relations Board a year ago caused some buzz when it moved to re-do the proceeding in the case Cordúa Restaurants Inc. The divided board’s new ruling, issued Wednesday, “was the first to address the lawfulness of employer conduct surrounding mandatory arbitration agreements since the Supreme Court’s Epic Systems ruling issued in 2018.”

NLRB Chairman John Ring (above) and the majority said the imposition of a mandatory arbitration agreement in response to protected union activity does not violate the National Labor Relations Act. “We assume, without deciding, that an individual employee engages in protected concerted activity when he or she opts in to a collective action. Nevertheless, the promulgation of the revised agreement in response to that activity did not violate the Act,” the majority wrote.

From board member Lauren McFerren‘s dissent: “In finding the respondent’s revised arbitration agreement lawful—even though it was promulgated in response to protected activity—the majority departs from board precedent without explanation. Even assuming that the agreement was lawful, it did not entitle the respondent—as the majority seems to hold—to threaten employees for protesting the agreement.”

The board summarized its findings:

>> “Employers are not prohibited under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) from informing employees that failing or refusing to sign a mandatory arbitration agreement will result in their discharge.”

>> “Employers are not prohibited under the NLRA from promulgating mandatory arbitration agreements in response to employees opting in to a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act or state wage-and-hour laws.”

>> “Employers are prohibited from taking adverse action against employees for engaging in concerted activity by filing a class or collective action, consistent with the Board’s long-standing precedent.”

Eager to hear any thoughts about the decision—and predictions about what’s next. I’m at [email protected].

Who Got the Work

>> “The largest federal employee union is suing the federal government over guidance issued to federal employees last year warning against the use of terms like “resistance” or “#resist” in statements regarding President Donald Trump,” CNN reports. Arnold & Porter partner R. Stanton Jones and senior associate Daniel Jacobson represent the plaintiffs with lawyers from the liberal advocacy group American Oversight, including Austin Evers, Melanie Sloan and John Bies. Read the complaint here.

>> Coca-Cola Refreshments USA Inc. has signed a conciliation agreement with the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs resolving claims the company discriminated against 123 qualified female applicants when hiring external candidates for an order builder position. “OFCCP has preliminarily determined that this practice of disproportionately hiring male applicants is based on gender and not based on legitimate differences in qualifications,” the conciliation agreement said. The company will distribute about $114,000 in back pay and interest in lieu of job offers. Coca-Cola did not admit any labor and employment violations or other wrongdoing. Alisa Fiser, vice president of human resources at the Coca-Cola Company, signed for the company.

>> A former senior robotics manager at Walmart Inc. is suing the retailer claiming she was passed over for promotions based on her gender—pointing in particular to a department head who told her to “not be so emotional,” called her while drunk, and sent text messages saying “I love you.” Kantor & Kantor in Northridge, California, and Carey & Associates of Southport, Connecticut, represent the employee. My colleague Alaina Lancaster has more here. And read the Northern District of California complaint here.

Around the Water Cooler

>> Trump Administration

Justice Dept. Disavows EEOC at Supreme Court, Taking Company’s Side in Bias Case. The Trump administration’s solicitor general Noel Francisco (above) is urging the Supreme Court to vacate a disability discrimination ruling that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission won in a case against BNSF Railway Co., marking the latest instance of the government switching its position at the high court. [Law.com]

How Trump Is Reversing Obama’s Non-Discrimination Legacy. “Donald Trump’s administration made another major move in its effort to walk back President Barack Obama’s contested legacy on nondiscrimination policies. Under a proposed new rule, faith-based groups that receive contracts from the Department of Labor would have a wider latitude to make hiring and firing decisions based on their religious teachings.” [The Atlantic]

House Democrats Probe Top Labor Board Lawyer’s Policy Shifts. “The lawmakers sent National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Peter Robb, a wide-ranging request Aug. 12, related to changes he’s made to the office that prosecutes unfair labor practice cases and represents the board in court proceedings.” [Bloomberg Law]

How Kellyanne Conway Saved Her White House Job. “Senior White House aide Kellyanne Conway avoided getting fired for ‘egregious and ongoing’ violations of the Hatch Act in large part because a little-known oversight agency was unable to weigh in—and will likely remain so if additional White House aides are found to have followed Conway’s example. The agency in question, the Merit Systems Protection Board, is no favorite of the Trump administration.” [Politico]

Labor Nominee Would Likely Sit Out Financial-Advice Rule Making. “Eugene Scalia, a Washington lawyer who has helped companies challenge financial rules, previously handled a legal challenge to the Obama administration’s version of the regulation, known as the fiduciary rule.” [WSJ]

As Workplace Raids Multiply, Trump Administration Charges Few Companies. “Prosecuting corporations, as opposed to individual workers or managers, for immigration-related offenses was also relatively rare during the Obama administration but has slowed further under the Trump administration, according todatabases maintained by Duke University and the University of Virginia.” [Washington Post]

>> Law Firm Defendants

Winston & Strawn Protests Ex-Partner’s ‘Firm Always Wins’ Characterization. Lawyers for Winston & Strawn pressed their argument at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday that a former partner should be forced to make her discrimination and retaliation claims through a confidential arbitration proceeding and not in court.Orrick partner E. Joshua Rosenkranz is counsel for record for Winston & Strawn.[Law.com]

Ex-SCOTUS Clerks Sue Jones Day, Alleging Anti-Male Bias. A married couple who worked as associates in the firm’s issues and appeals practice after clerking on the U.S. Supreme Court allege the firm’s parental leave policy is unfair to men. Mark Savignac and Julia Sheketoff said in a complaint filed in Washington federal district court that while they intend to share equally in raising their son, the firm discriminates against fathers by providing them eight fewer weeks of parental leave. Jones Day strongly denied the claims in a statement, asserting that the firm “is devoted to the importance of family and maintains an environment in which our lawyers can practice at the highest professional levels and have rewarding family lives.” [Law.com] The New York Times has more here.

Denied Anonymity, Ex-Jones Day Associate Retreats as Gender Bias Representative. The lone remaining anonymous plaintiff in the $200 million federal gender bias class action against Jones Day has removed her name and specific allegations from the lawsuit in response to a judge’s order that she reveal her identity by Monday. [Law.com]

Use of Jane Doe, New Laws Boosting Bias Claims Against Law Firms. Federal courts require plaintiffs in employment suits to demonstrate exceptional circumstances to justify remaining anonymous. But a Bloomberg Law analysis showed that discrimination and harassment lawsuits filed anonymously doubled in recent years. [Bloomberg Law]

Ex-Troutman Secretary Sues Firm and Partner, Claiming Sex Misconduct, Retaliation. A former secretary at Troutman Sanders has sued the firm and ex-partner Gerald Francese, claiming she endured more than a year of sexual harassment and misconduct by Francese and was ultimately terminated after she reported him to human resources. The plaintiff is represented by Benjamin Dictorof Eisner & Dictor. [New York Law Journal] Read the complaint.

>> Hiring

Résumés Are Starting to Look Like Instagram—and Sometimes Even Tinder. “The flashy résumés are colliding with efforts by employers to strip down CVs to their most basic elements—coding skills, college degrees, work histories—to reduce bias in hiring. Many companies run résumés through tools called applicant tracking systems that remove photos and other design embellishments. Others are looking for ways to blind out even names and addresses, which could reveal gender, race or socioeconomic status.” [WSJ]

>> Union Litigation

American Airlines Lands Permanent Injunction Against Mechanics Union. American Airlines Inc. won a permanent injunction against its mechanics union in a lawsuit that claimed the mechanics engaged in a concerted work slowdown, causing flight delays and cancellations, to gain leverage in their contract negotiations. “There are very few labor airline disputes that get to this level,” said Michael Green, a professor at Texas A&M University School of Law in Fort Worth, and director of its workplace law program. [Law.com]

Notable Moves & More

• Boosting its immigration practice, Dorsey & Whitney said it has absorbed a three-lawyer boutique, the Webber Law Firm, based in a Minneapolis suburb, my colleague Patrick Smith reports. The boutique’s principal attorney, Robert Webber, has joined as a partner and co-chair of Dorsey’s immigration practice group, along with senior attorneys Candelario Arredondo and Penni Frank. More here at the Star Tribune.

• Jackson Lewis has added a veteran Silicon Valley litigator from rival labor and employment powerhouse Littler Mendelson, giving the firm its 60th office globally. Neda Dal Cielo, who joins as a firm principal and who will lead the firm’s new San Jose office, spent more than two decades at Littler, my colleague Xiumei Dong reports.

• Morrison & Foerster said it has hired Oswald Cousins as of counsel in the firm’s Palo Alto office. “Mr. Cousins has 25 years of litigation experience, including jury and bench trials in federal and state courts,” the firm said.

• Barnes & Thornburg has added immigration attorney Tejas Shah as partner in the firm’s Chicago office. Shah previously led Franczek P.C.’s immigration practice.