Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives

On March 4, 2026, Virginia Senate Bill 170 (SB170) passed the House of Delegates after unanimous approval by the Senate.  SB170 now awaits signature by Governor Abigail Spanberger, who has until April 13, 2026 to act.  If signed, the law will go into effect on July 1, 2026, and forms part of Virginia’s broader effort to limit the application and enforceability of non-compete agreements.

SB 574 is a California bill that would set specific duties for attorneys who use generative artificial intelligence and would restrict how arbitrators may use such tools in decision-making. It would amend provisions in the Business and Professions Code and the Code of Civil Procedure to address confidentiality, accuracy, bias, and citation verification for attorneys, and to prohibit delegation of arbitral decision-making to AI while adding disclosure and responsibility requirements for arbitrators.

In 2026, New York state and city have enacted a number of new laws impacting employers and there are other labor and employment law developments on the horizon. Please join Hunton’s New York labor and employment lawyers, Chris Pardo and James La Rocca, as they discuss new and evolving legislation and other important legal developments affecting employers.

On February 6, 2026, the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency (“LWDA”) provided a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Notice”) to adopt new Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) regulations intended to supplement the legislative reforms to PAGA in 2024. The proposed rulemaking, in its current form, is great news for employers that have been inundated with frivolous PAGA filings. 

On February 26, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division proposed a new rule to determine whether workers are independent contractors or employees under federal wage-and-hour laws.

Join Hunton’s employment and immigration lawyers for a complimentary webinar, “Navigating 2026: Labor & Employment Law Updates Impacting Your Business.” This update will provide a concise overview of the most significant legal developments affecting employers this year.  

The National Labor Relations Board (“Board” or NLRB) can have up to five sitting Board members, but only three are needed for the NLRB to have a quorum. The Board had been without a quorum for most of last year but now has three sitting members thanks to two new additions last month. It marked the first time since the start of President Trump’s second term that a majority of Board members have been Republicans.

The National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) then-acting General Counsel recently issued Memorandum GC 26-01, announcing a new, agency-wide docketing procedure that significantly reshapes how charges are processed. This move comes in response to a growing backlog, which has been exacerbated by both the unprecedented 43-day government shutdown and persistent staffing shortages in regional offices.

The California Supreme Court is poised to address a fundamental question in employment law: Can an arbitration agreement be enforced when its operative terms are illegible?

As employers continue finding new ways to use artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools and software to support business operations, state legislators have taken notice.