On November 16, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Lubbock Division) converted its injunction preventing implementation of the U.S. Department of Labor’s revised persuader rule on a national...more
Some may recall the scene in the movie, Network, in which actor Peter Finch launched into an angry rant on his television news show shouting "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" He encouraged his...more
Court Upholds Employer’s Dreadlock Ban Finds Grooming Policy Did Not Violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act -
A federal appellate court recently held that an employer’s policy banning dreadlocks did not constitute...more
11/7/2016
/ Accessibility Rules ,
Appearance Policy ,
Blacklist ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Drug Testing ,
EEO-1 ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Federal Contractors ,
Filing Requirements ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Job Applicants ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Minimum Wage ,
Misclassification ,
NLRA ,
OSHA ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Sexual Assault ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Sick Leave ,
Stalking ,
Strategic Enforcement Plan ,
Title VII ,
Unemployment Benefits ,
W-2 ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wages ,
Workplace Injury
On August 26, 2016, the National Labor Relations Board's Division of Advice publicly released an advice memorandum from December of 2015 in which it found a Section 8(a)(1) violation for an employer's misclassification of...more
On June 27, 2016, in National Federation of Independent Business et al. v. Perez, et al., the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Lubbock Division) granted Plaintiffs’ Motion for a Preliminary Injunction,...more
National Federation of Independent Business et al. v. Perez, et al.
On June 27, 2016, in National Federation of Independent Business et al. v. Perez, et al., the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Lubbock Division) granted Plaintiffs’ Motion for a Preliminary Injunction,...more
6/28/2016
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Fifth Amendment ,
First Amendment ,
Imminent Harm ,
Likelihood of Success ,
LMRDA ,
Persuader Rules ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Unions
On June 22, 2016, in Labnet, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota issued the first decision arising out of three separate lawsuits seeking preliminary injunctions blocking...more
In yet another assault on long-established labor law precedent, on May 9, 2016, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Richard Griffin ordered the issuance of NLRB complaints in every case in which an employer...more
The minimum salary threshold to qualify for the executive, administrative, and professional exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) will more than double on December 1, 2016, from $23,660 per year to $47,476 per...more
6/21/2016
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Ban the Box ,
Criminal Background Checks ,
Electronic Reporting ,
Employer Mandates ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
LMRDA ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Minimum Salary ,
OSHA ,
Over-Time ,
Paid Family Leave Law ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Persuader Rules ,
Preemption ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions ,
Workplace Injury ,
Workplace Safety
In accordance with the U.S. Department of Labor’s recent public announcement regarding the implementation of its new “persuader activity” rule, all engagements entered into prior to July 1, 2016—including long-term or...more
6/14/2016
/ Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Consultants ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Fifth Amendment ,
Final Rules ,
First Amendment ,
LMRDA ,
Persuader Rules ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Unions
On May 31, a divided National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a very significant decision in American Baptist Homes of the West, increasing the impact of an employer’s motive in deciding whether the permanent replacement...more
6/6/2016
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Back Pay ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Hiring & Firing ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Reinstatement ,
Right to Strike ,
SEIU ,
Unions
At last, we have a little good news for government contractors. By a vote of 34–28 taken late in the evening on April 27, 2016, the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) adopted a measure that would block the application of...more
On March 22, 2016, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Richard Griffin released Memorandum GC 16-01, entitled "Mandatory Submissions to the Division of Advice." The memorandum instructs the Board's regional...more
4/22/2016
/ Email Policies ,
English-Only Rules ,
Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces ,
Federal Contractors ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Purple Communications ,
Unions ,
Weingarten Rights
On April 13, 2016, the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a Form LM-21 Special Enforcement Policy announcement. Effective immediately, the policy is suspending the...more
4/18/2016
/ Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Consultants ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Guidance ,
Filing Requirements ,
Final Rules ,
Injunctive Relief ,
LMRDA ,
OLMS ,
Persuader Rules ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Union Elections ,
Unions
A federal appellate court recently held that an employer did not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it discharged an employee who had been sleeping at work and falling short of the employer’s performance...more
4/11/2016
/ ABC Test ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Class Action ,
Deferred Action ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Chance Act ,
Fair Share Law ,
Friedrichs v CA Teachers Association ,
Harassment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Hostile Environment ,
Independent Contractors ,
Justice Scalia ,
Minimum Wage ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Persuader Rules ,
Poor Job Performance ,
Posting Requirements ,
Public Employees ,
SCOTUS ,
Sick Leave ,
Union Dues ,
Wage and Hour
On March 23, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued final regulations revising the “advice exemption” and requiring employers and consultants (including lawyers) to report labor relations advice and services under...more
3/26/2016
/ American Bar Association (ABA) ,
Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Consultants ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Final Rules ,
LMRDA ,
NLRB ,
Persuader Rules ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Supervisors ,
Trade Associations ,
Unions
On March 15, 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court of the United States created...more
The sudden death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States, who served on the Court for over 30 years, has touched off a heated political debate over the appointment and consideration of...more
3/1/2016
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
AT&T Mobility v Concepcion ,
Class Action ,
Comcast v. Behrend ,
Constructive Discharge ,
DACA ,
Dukes v Wal-Mart ,
Executive Orders ,
Fair Share Law ,
Friedrichs v CA Teachers Association ,
Green v Brennan ,
Immigration Reform ,
Justice Scalia ,
Public Employees ,
SCOTUS ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Title VII ,
Union Dues ,
US v Texas
One way to assess an administration's public policy priorities is by examining its annual budget submission to Congress: The higher an administration sets its funding requests for particular federal departments, agencies, and...more
As President Barack Obama enters the final year of his term in office, his far-reaching regulatory agenda for 2016 is full of labor and employment proposals that have eluded his predecessors. "In Washington, no bad idea ever...more
What is on the horizon for labor and employment policy in 2016, the last year of the Obama administration when the president will seek to cement his legacy, and a national election year when the White House and control of...more
1/18/2016
/ Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces ,
Friedrichs v CA Teachers Association ,
NLRB ,
Obama Administration ,
Popular ,
Right to Work ,
SCOTUS ,
Trans-Pacific Partnership ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
On the evening of January 12, 2016, in his seventh and final State of the Union (SOTU) address, President Barack Obama delivered a look back at what he hopes will be remembered as his legacy accomplishments in office, as well...more
On December 18, 2015, President Obama signed the $1.1 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, the omnibus spending bill that will fund all federal agencies and government programs through September of 2016— and the...more
Don't look now, but the U.S. Department of Labor’s latest Fall 2015 Semiannual Regulatory Agenda advances the controversial proposed revisions to the "persuader activity" reporting requirements under the Labor-Management...more
This morning, the Obama administration released the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, setting up a bitter debate over its provisions next year. Foremost among the opponents of TPP, organized labor...more