Introduction - 2023 may prove to be a landmark year for U.S. labor law. There were several significant changes in the law that left employers reeling. The breadth and depth of these changes were staggering even for seasoned...more
2/21/2024
/ Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Non-Disparagement Provisions ,
Severance Agreements ,
State Labor Laws ,
Trade Secrets ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Unions
On June 1, 2023, the United States Supreme Court held that a company could sue a union over intentional damage caused during a labor dispute. In Glacier Northwest v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Loc. Union No. 174,...more
6/14/2023
/ Civil Liability ,
Glacier Northwest v International Brotherhood of Teamsters ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Preemption ,
Private Property ,
Property Damage ,
SCOTUS ,
State Law Claims ,
Strike ,
Teamsters ,
Unions
2022 was a great year for U.S. labor unions and employees, but not so much for U.S. employers. The Biden National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) dug in and got to work, reversing precedent and charting a course to reinterpret...more
Our blog post on Nanny Cams in the workplace turned out to be one of our most popular posts (makes us wonder what people are putting in the search bar?). So, we thought we would follow up with some more information for...more
Whether two entities are “joint employers” is an important question under the National Labor Relations Act. Consider Company A, which contracts with Company B, a staffing company, to provide maintenance or other services at...more
INTRODUCTION -
2021 was the first year of National Labor Relations Board under President Biden. For years, the Board’s decisions and its approach generally have swung back and forth depending on whether there was a...more
1/31/2022
/ Boeing ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Popular ,
Protected Activity ,
Section 7 ,
Unions
The United States House of Representatives has passed the PRO Act, which now moves to the Senate for consideration. If passed, the PRO Act would probably be the most radical, and union friendly, change to U.S. labor law...more
INTRODUCTION -
In our last Review, we reported that the National Labor Relations Board had a very busy year. Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was also a fairly busy year for the Board. In its final...more
The National Labor Relations Board has traditionally applied separate tests to evaluate whether employee discipline violated the National Labor Relations Act, depending on the context of the underlying misconduct. This has...more
7/23/2020
/ Disciplinary Proceedings ,
Employee Misconduct ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
General Motors ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Section 7 ,
Strike ,
Unfair Labor Practices
On February 26, 2020, the National Labor Relations Board issued a final rule governing joint-employer status under the National Labor Relations Act. ...more
3/5/2020
/ Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Franchises ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Joint Employers ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Staffing Agencies ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
If 2018 was a year of elevator music at the National Labor Relations Board, 2019 was symphony of sound. The Board’s initiatives were varied, high-profile and in the vast majority of cases, the developments were positives for...more
3/2/2020
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Confidentiality Policies ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Email Policies ,
Employer Rights ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Internal Investigations ,
Joint Employers ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
Misclassification ,
New Rules ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Popular ,
Purple Communications ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Union Elections ,
Union Organizers ,
Wage and Hour ,
Waivers
The flurry of activity from National Labor Relations Board in late 2019 was a fairly consistent drum beat of good news for employers. In many cases, the Board restored decades of precedent that had been upended by the Board...more
1/6/2020
/ Banner Health System ,
Boeing ,
Confidentiality Policies ,
Employment Policies ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Section 7 ,
Unions ,
Workplace Investigations
If you follow our blog, you know that the National Labor Relations Board’s election rules have been a hot topic over the past several years. The Board’s election rules are critical, because time can often make a difference...more
A lot of times, determining whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee is tough. Different laws have different standards, and government agencies and the courts often apply different tests in addressing...more
Although in many respects it was a slow year for the National Labor Relations Board, it was a year of progress in the eyes of many employers. The Board operated at full strength for the entire year, with Republican John Ring...more
2/28/2019
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Duty of Fair Representation ,
Email Policies ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Joint Employers ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Quickie Election Rules ,
SCOTUS
Have you ever felt that reading the decisions of the National Labor Relations Board is a lot like watching a tennis match? The decisions on key workplace issues go back and forth, back and forth, and you are just stuck...more
That sound you just heard was employers everywhere breathing a sigh of relief, and maybe even high-fiving. That’s because the newly constituted National Labor Relations Board fired off several pro-employer decisions in the...more
12/19/2017
/ Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Deregulation ,
DuPont ,
Joint Employers ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Specialty Healthcare ,
Staffing Agencies ,
Unions
In yet another reversal of precedent, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that students who perform work for a university for which they are compensated can form and join labor unions under the National Labor...more
9/1/2016
/ Brown University ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Colleges ,
Columbia University ,
Educational Institutions ,
Graduate Students ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Student Employees ,
Teaching Assistants ,
Tuition ,
Unions ,
Universities
To mark the 80th birthday of the National Labor Relations Act, the National Labor Relations Board apparently decided to make history in 2015. The Board did just that, issuing several ground breaking decisions, and in the...more
2/4/2016
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
College Athletes ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Fair Share Law ,
Internal Investigations ,
Joint Employers ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Northwestern University ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Quickie Election Rules ,
SCOTUS ,
Unions ,
Young Lawyers
English-only rules are not as common as they once were, but many employers still require employees to speak English only in the workplace. Justifications for these rules vary, but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission...more
Introduction -
If the National Labor Relations Board seemed to be on the ropes in 2013, it certainly came out swinging in 2014. Last year, we reported that the Board faced a number of serious legal battles. Although...more
1/22/2015
/ Ambush Election Rules ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Canning v NLRB ,
College Athletes ,
Corporate Counsel ,
D.R. Horton v NLRB ,
Email ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Facebook ,
Franchises ,
Joint Employers ,
Macy's ,
McDonalds ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Northwestern University ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Purple Communications ,
Recess Appointments ,
Social Media ,
Social Media Policy ,
Unions
The National Labor Relations Board recently took the opportunity, in a case dating back to 2011, to update and modernize some of the standard language contained in the remedial notice that the Board requires to be posted as a...more
As we previously reported, the National Labor Relations Board has thrown down some pretty significant roadblocks for employers attempting to conduct thorough and actionable internal investigations. The Board continued those...more
Introduction -
From the looks of it, 2013 was a very rough year for the National Labor Relations Board (Board)! Last year, we reported that the Board would face some serious legal battles in 2013. Some of those...more
A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) recently concluded that an employer violated the National Labor Relations Act (Act) by implementing a "no gossip policy" and by firing an employee who...more