Compliance Round Up – A Proposed End to the Visa Grace Period, New York Personnel Files, and a $7.8 Million Accommodation Verdict

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Written By
Jennifer Kiesewetter
Published On: September 21, 2026

Jenny Kiesewetter is a practicing ERISA and employee benefits attorney who partners with HR teams on a wide range of workplace compliance matters — from benefit-plan obligations to day-to-day HR policies and regulatory requirements. Her guidance helps employers spot risks early, navigate regulatory change, and make informed decisions that support both employees and the organization.

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Washington moved on immigration and tip rules, New York and Maine set new employer obligations, and two federal appeals courts made mistakes in accommodation and retaliation more expensive. Three of the 6 developments carry a date for your calendar.

Federal News

Status: Proposed rule published September 11, 2026. Comments due November 10, 2026.

What’s Changing: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), acting through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, proposed removing 8 C.F.R. § 214.1(l)(2), the rule that lets workers in 8 classifications, including H-1B, L-1, O-1 and TN, and their dependents remain in the U.S. for up to 60 days after employment ends, at the agency’s discretion.

If the rule becomes final, the worker and any dependents would fall out of status the day after the job ends, with no window to find a new sponsor.

What This Means for HR:

  • Give affected visa holders enough notice before their last day for a new employer to file, and loop in immigration counsel before setting any separation date.
  • Reassess severance, notice periods, and garden leave with immigration counsel.
  • Comment by November 10 if this would reshape your reduction-in-force planning.

Status: Opinion letters dated September 7, 2026.

What’s Changing: The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division issued 3 opinion letters under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). FLSA2026-13 concludes that a supervisor who meets the executive duties test may keep no portion of other employees’ tips under Section 3(m)(2)(B), even when that supervisor also tends bar, and may retain only tips a customer gives for service the supervisor directly and solely provided.

FLSA2026-11 treats an unpaid 60-minute meal period as bona fide even when employees spend 6 to 14 minutes walking to and from the break area. FLSA2026-12 lets exempt nonprofit employees volunteer unpaid only when they act freely, expect no pay, and take on work different from their paid duties.

What This Means for HR:

  • Audit tip pools for any supervisor who works shifts.
  • Verify walking time does not shrink a meal period below 30 minutes.
  • Document that volunteer hours sit outside the volunteer’s paid duties.

Trending State News

Effective Date: Signed September 9, 2026; effective November 8, 2026.

What’s Changing: Governor Kathy Hochul signed Chapter 293 of the Laws of 2026, adding Section 210-b to the New York Labor Law. On written request, an employer must hand an employee a free copy of the personnel record within 5 business days. When the employer places anything in the record that may be used against the employee’s qualification for employment, promotion, transfer, pay, or discipline, it must say so within 10 days. The employee may submit a written response that becomes part of the record.

Employers must keep an employee’s complete personnel record until 3 years after employment ends. Employees may review their personnel record up to twice per calendar year.

The New York Attorney General enforces the law, with fines of $500 to $2,500 per violation, and the law bars retaliation against employees who use it.

What This Means for HR:

  • Define what counts as the personnel record before November 8.
  • Confirm outsourced payroll and screening vendors can produce a file in 5 days.
  • Reconcile record purge schedules against the 3-year retention floor.

Effective Date: Announced September 18, 2026; effective January 1, 2027.

What’s Changing: The Maine Department of Labor announced that the state minimum wage rises from $15.10 to $15.70 an hour on January 1, 2027, an inflation adjustment tied to a 4.1 percent rise in the CPI-W. The direct cash wage for service employees moves from $7.55 to $7.85. Maine pegs its white-collar exemption salary floor at 3,000 times the state minimum wage, and the Department puts the 2027 threshold at $905.79 a week, or $47,101.08 a year, against a federal floor of $684.

What This Means for HR:

  • Confirm every Maine exempt salary exceeds $47,101.08 before January 1.
  • Raise pay or reclassify anyone who falls short, and budget for the overtime.
  • Update tipped-wage calculations to the new $7.85 cash wage.

Around the Courts

Decided: September 11, 2026.

What’s Changing: In Lewis-Williams v. San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a $7,824,580 jury award under Title VII and California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act to 6 former employees who sought religious accommodations from BART’s October 2021 COVID-19 vaccination requirement. BART’s leave management staff determined that 70 employees qualified for a potential accommodation but ultimately concluded that it could not accommodate any of them without undue hardship. The employees argued that masking, testing, and other workplace precautions could have allowed them to continue working safely.

BART leaned on public health authority to justify the denials. The court held that those views carry “special weight” but are “not conclusive,” and noted that BART put no guidance documents into evidence, only after-the-fact expert testimony.

What This Means for HR:

  • Decide each accommodation request against the specific job, never as a category.
  • Record the hardship analysis request by request, with alternatives you rejected.
  • Put the public health guidance you relied on into the file when you decide, because testimony assembled later carries less weight.

Decided: September 18, 2026.

What’s Changing: In Crawford v. West Texas A&M University, a university police officer corroborated a colleague’s sexual misconduct allegations during a Title IX investigation involving a sergeant perceived to be close to the police chief. The officer was later placed on paid administrative leave and became the subject of a separate investigation after recording a conversation involving the police chief. He resigned before he could be fired and received a dishonorable discharge on his peace officer record.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the university on his Title VII retaliation claim, finding that the lower court used the wrong standard for deciding whether the officer suffered an adverse action. Under Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White, the question is whether the employer’s action might dissuade a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination. Paid administrative leave “cannot be said to be a ‘petty slight,'” the court wrote, and a jury could find that the leave and investigation were serious enough to support a retaliation claim.

The discharge claim failed. The members of the independent panel that investigated the recording said under oath they did not know about his role in the Title IX investigation, so the court found no causal link.

What This Means for HR:

  • Extend a corroborating witness the same protection you extend to the complainant.
  • Justify interim measures in writing, because paid leave can read as an adverse action.
  • Keep the complaint investigation separate from any inquiry into those who supported it, with decision-makers who have no knowledge of the complaint.

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