Articles About Maine Labor and Employment Law.

The Maine Department of Labor announced on September 17, 2021 that the state’s public sector employees will be subject to President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate due to Maine’s state plan agreement with the federal government.

In July 2021, Maine enacted a new “ban-the-box” law that limits employer inquiries into an applicant’s criminal history. Under the new law, entitled “An Act Relating to Fair Chance in Employment,” employers are prohibited from including criminal history inquiries in an application, but can engage in such inquiries during an

Maine’s new “An Act Relating to Fair Chance in Employment” prohibits employers from requesting an applicant’s criminal history on their initial employment applications. An employer may ask about an applicant’s criminal history during an interview or once the applicant has been determined qualified for the position.

The First Special Session of the 130th Maine Legislature ended on July 19, 2021 with a flurry of votes on pending bills. Many of the newly-enacted laws, which were adopted with little debate, will significantly impact almost all employers in the Pine Tree state. Below is a brief summary

Employers in Portland, Maine received long-awaited clarity Tuesday regarding a November 2020 voter referendum raising the city’s minimum wage and instituting hazard pay during states of emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic. On July 6, 2021, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court unanimously ruled in Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce

Maine employees will soon be eligible to take protected unpaid leave to care for serious health conditions of their grandchildren. On June 14, 2021, Governor Janet Mills signed into law L.D. 61, an Act to Include Grandparents Under Maine’s Family Medical Leave Laws. The law amends the Maine Family Medical

As the January 1, 2021, effective date of Maine’s Earned Paid Employee Leave Law approaches, the state Department of Labor (DOL) has promulgated the much-anticipated final regulations for implementing the statute.

The countdown is on for when Maine officially becomes the first state to require private employers to provide earned paid leave to employees for any reason.

Despite recently extending a state of emergency due to COVID-19 through June 11, 2020, Maine Governor Janet Mills gave the green light for more businesses to open in all counties on June 1, 2020, as part of the second stage of the governor’s Restarting Maine’s Economy plan.

Maine has begun Stage 1 of a four-stage plan to reopen the Maine economy following the stay-at-home order issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Noncompete reform continues to crop up in New England. We previously wrote about comprehensive reform in Massachusetts late last year, and now three more states have passed legislation in recent weeks. All three states – Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island – now prohibit employers from entering noncompetition agreements with low-wage employees, though the definition of “low wage” varies by state.

In recent weeks, Maine and New Hampshire each enacted a law prohibiting the use of noncompete agreements with lower wage earners. Shortly thereafter, on July 11, 2019, the Rhode Island legislature sent a similar bill to Governor Raimondo’s desk for signature.

On June 27, 2019, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed into law L.D. 666, which extends existing protections for pregnant and nursing employees in Maine. The act, entitled “An Act to Protect Pregnant Workers,” creates broad protections for workers, covering any limitation of an employee’s ability to perform their job due to pregnancy, child birth, or related medical conditions including lactation. The act also amends existing provisions of 5 M.R.S.A. § 4572-A to make the section’s protections gender-neutral.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which goes into effect January 1, 2020, is considered the most robust state privacy law in the United States. The CCPA seems to have spurred a flood of similar legislative proposals on the state level, and started a shift in the consumer privacy law landscape. Many of these proposals end up dying somewhere along the rigorous legislative process, but in the last few weeks both Maine and Nevada signed into law bills that, although much more narrow than the CCPA, certainly bear resemblance.

State and local leave laws are changing weekly and sometimes even daily! For the second time this month, Maine is adjusting its leave laws. Employers in Maine will soon be required to provide veterans with time away from work to attend scheduled appointments at Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities. If paid leave is available to the veteran, he or she must be permitted to use paid leave for the absence. If a veteran has no available paid leave, then the employer must allow the veteran to take unpaid leave. Veterans are required to give their employer notice of the appointment “as soon as reasonably possible.” The law goes into effect on September 19, 2019.