Rafiq R. Gharbi

Rafiq R. Gharbi

COUNSEL
BALTIMORE
T: 410.347.8748
F: 410.234.2377

Mr. Gharbi provides tailored advice to businesses regarding employment laws and workplace issues. With thoughtful attention to each client, Mr. Gharbi’s approach draws on a wide range of experience with labor and employment issues to carefully guide employers toward workplace solutions. Whether a business is taking its first steps to assess a potential issue, or actively involved in defending a lawsuit or administrative charge, Mr. Gharbi is a trusted advisor. He works in lockstep with clients to mitigate risk and resolve issues with an emphasis on practical, business-focused resolutions. With the landscape of labor and employment law changing on a near-daily basis, Mr. Gharbi provides timely guidance in a dynamic and complex area of the law.

Mr. Gharbi focuses his practice on employment counseling and defense of management against employment claims, including workplace discrimination, unfair labor practices, wage and hour lawsuits, contract disputes, and workplace torts. Mr. Gharbi’s clients seek employment counseling for daily personnel issues, enforcement of employment agreements and covenants, leave issues, discipline, and general personnel questions- oftentimes serving as outside employment counsel for business or supporting their human resource departments. He has experience both in federal and state courts, as well as defending administrative charges before federal, state, and local government agencies including the EEOC, NLRB, Department of Labor.

Mr. Gharbi’s international practice serves clients seeking advice on employing U.S. nationals, navigating the U.S. Visa system for immigrant and non-immigrant workers, and generally advising on compliance with state and federal employment laws.

Mr. Gharbi also represents mosques and is active in Islamic initiatives throughout Maryland. Faith-based organizations, schools, and nonprofits rely on Mr. Gharbi as their general counsel.
 

Recognitions

  • Maryland Rising Stars®,  Employment Litigation: Defense (2024)
 

Memberships & Activities

  • Member: Maryland State Bar Association,
  • Member: D.C. Bar Association
  • Member: Bar Association of Baltimore City; Young Lawyer’s Division Public Service Committee
  • Member: Tunisian American Young Professionals
  • Member: Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals 
  • Member: Islamic Society of Baltimore
Counseling on a wide variety of matters, Mr. Gharbi advises companies, organizations and individuals, both domestically and internationally, ranging from publicly-traded companies with thousands of employees to middle-market companies, closely-held family businesses, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, sole proprietors and entrepreneurs.

Employment Litigation
  • Employment and disability discrimination (e.g., under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Title VII), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
  • Harassment and retaliation
  • Wage and hour violations
  • Restrictive covenants, trade secrets and unfair competition
  • Plant closings and reductions in force
  • Class and collective actions
  • Wrongful discharge claims
  • Whistleblower claims
  • Breach of contract
  • Common law claims

Traditional Labor Relations
We represent management in all aspects of traditional labor law under the National Labor Relations Act, in areas such as:
  • Collective bargaining
  • Grievance and arbitration
  • Unfair labor practice charges
  • Practice before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), public employee relations boards and courts
  • Joint labor management committees
  • Apprenticeship training programs
  • Jointly trusteed benefit plans and withdrawal liability

Employment Counseling
  • Regulatory compliance and internal and external investigations under federal, state and local statutes, laws and ordinances, including sexual harassment, whistleblower and retaliation issues
  • Workplace policies, practices and procedures, including medical marijuana and drug testing policies
  • Employee handbooks and policy manuals
  • In–house training
  • Affirmative Action Plans and audits
  • Wage and hour audits
  • Security, risk management and privacy
  • Downsizing, mass layoffs and reductions in force
  • Non-competition, non-solicitation, non-disclosure and other restrictive covenant agreements to protect against unfair competition
  • Employee benefits and executive compensation, including Affordable Care Act compliance consulting
INSIGHTS

Presenter: "Leading Interviews," Young Professional Leadership Academy of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), (November 2022)

Author: "How to accommodate Islamic employee prayer breaks," HR Laws (April 2022)

Author: "Workplace Religious Accommodations and Islamic Prayer," Maryland State Bar Association Labor & Employment Newsletter (Winter 2022)

Co-author: "Employees are Requesting Shariah Compliant Investment Options - What Now?," Maryland State Bar Association Labor & Employment Newsletter (Winter 2022)

Co-presenter: "Recent Changes in Federal, Maryland and DC Law," Frederick County Society for Human Resources Management (FCSHRM), Webinar (May 2021)

ARTICLES

Employment Law Update: The NLRB's General Counsel Targets "Stay or Pay" Provisions in Newly Issued Memo

Employers who require their employees to stay with them for a certain period of time after receiving company-paid training, education, or other benefits may face legal challenges from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). On October 7, 2024, the NLRB's General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, issued GC Memorandum 25-01 (the Memo) announcing her intention to prosecute employers who use these "stay or pay" agreements, which she views as similar to unlawful noncompete agreements that restrict employees' mobility and rights.

Employment Law Update: Workplace Religious Accommodations and Islamic Prayer

Few issues are more sensitive for employers than accommodating employees’ religious practices and observances. In recent years, Muslim employees and their employers have struggled with how to handle the religious requirement to perform obligatory prayers while at work. Few issues are more sensitive for employers than accommodating employees’ religious practices and observances. In recent years, Muslim employees and their employers have struggled with how to handle the religious requirement to perform obligatory prayers while at work.

Employment Law Update: How Will the NCAA’s Settlement With College Athletes Impact Their Employment Status?

On May 23, 2024, the NCAA and the Power 5 conferences announced a $2.8 billion settlement that was reached in several antitrust class action lawsuits concerning payment for college athletes. The settlement marked a watershed moment, effectively sounding the death knell of “amateurism,” the longstanding argument by the NCAA for why college athletes should not be paid  in Division I college sports.

Employment Law Update: EEOC Release Final Rules on Pregnant Workers Fairness Act

On April 15, 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) published its Final Rule to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA”). The primary impact of the new law is that under the PWFA, employers of 15 employees or more are required to make affirmative efforts to accommodate a pregnant employee, not merely agree not to discriminate. The PWFA became law on June 27, 2023, but the requirements are not expected to take effect until June 2024 following the implementation of the Finale Rule.

Employment Law Update: The Latest on Non-Compete Agreements

Non-compete agreements have been the subject of much discussion and scrutiny across the country. While some states and federal agencies push for prohibition of these types of restrictive covenants altogether, Maryland and New York continue their trends of narrowing the class of workers who may be lawfully subjected to a non-compete. Non-Compete Agreements have been the subject of much discussion and scrutiny across the country. While some states and federal agencies push for prohibition of these types of restrictive covenants altogether, Maryland and New York continue their trends of narrowing the class of workers who may be lawfully subjected to a non-compete. 

Client Alert: Supreme Court Addresses Executive Compensation For Supervisors Paid a Daily Rate

On February 22nd, the Supreme Court ruled that an executive or managerial employee otherwise qualified to be overtime exempt, lost that exemption if paid on a daily rate basis.

As background, highly compensated employees, those identified as “Executive” or “Administrative” under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), can be overtime exempt if performing certain high level functions, and if paid on a “salaried basis.” At issue, the U.S. Supreme Court addressed whether an individual, otherwise entitled to exempt status, loses that status if paid on a daily pay basis – that is whether daily paid individuals are receiving a “salary.”
 

Client Alert: FTC Proposes New Rule Prohibiting Non-Compete Agreements

On January 5, 2023, The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) proposed a new rule that would ban essentially all non-compete agreements that employers impose on their workers. The notice of proposed rulemaking would deem any non-compete clauses with paid staff and independent contractors, as well as unpaid workers, to be an unfair method of competition that must be rescinded and that employers must tell current and former employees they've stopped enforcement.
 

Client Alert: A Gift for NCAA Athletes? The NLRB Finds Merit for Employee-Athletes

On December 15, 2022, The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) handed down a finding of merit in Case 31-CA-290326 brought by the National College Players Association (“NCPA”) on behalf of men’s and women’s basketball and football players that charged the University of Southern California (“USC”), the PAC-12 Conference (“PAC-12”) and the National Collegiate Athletics Association (“NCAA”) with an unfair labor practice, alleging they had systematically misclassified players as “student-athlete” nonemployees instead of employees to prevent the athletes from realizing their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

Client Alert: Maryland Passes New Paid Family Leave Law

The Time to Care Act of 2022 specifies that the Maryland Department of Labor must adopt regulations to implement the bill by June 1, 2023, which includes establishing a paid leave fund that collects contributions from employers and employees based on wages.

Client Alert: Stay Lifted on OSHA’s Vax or Test Mandate

The Sixth Circuit lifted the stay on OSHA’s vaccine or test mandate for employers with 100 or more employees. The Fifth Circuit stayed the mandate pending a review of whether the coronavirus presented a “grave danger” necessitating such sweeping federal action a day after the rules were published. With the stay lifted, employers are left revisiting the requirements of the mandate.

Workplace Religious Accommodations and Islamic Prayer

Few issues are more sensitive for employers than accommodating employees’ religious practices and observances. In recent years, Muslim employees and their employers have struggled with how to handle the religious requirement to perform obligatory prayers while at work.

D.C. Bans Non-Compete Agreements

In the close geographic quarters of the District of Columbia, non-compete agreements were a common tool for employers seeking to protect their business from former employees going to work for competitors. Now, employees cannot be bound by such covenants not to compete, and are generally free to take up shop with the competitor across the street. This new law will inevitably change the landscape of DC employment practices.

NEWSLETTERS

PRESENTATIONS

Webinar: Are Non-Competes Still Legal?

This webinar discusses what certain states and federal agencies are doing to attempt to limit or prohibit the use of non-competes and practical considerations for employers in light of these recent developments. 

36 Whiteford Attorneys Named Super Lawyers and Rising Stars

Whiteford, Taylor & Preston is pleased to announce that thirty-six of its attorneys are listed among the 2024 Super Lawyers and Rising Stars in Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.