As we reported here, earlier this year, the California Supreme Court confirmed a relaxed standard by which employees can prove whistleblower retaliation under Labor Code section 1102.5 in Lawson v. PPG Architectural Finishes,...more
Last week, the Third Circuit reversed a National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) decision finding that FDRLST Media, publisher of online news magazine The Federalist, unlawfully threatened its employees when its Executive...more
5/31/2022
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Embedded Tweets ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Unions
California’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board has voted for the third time to readopt and revise the Cal/OSHA COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (“ETS”), which lay out guidelines for testing, masking, and...more
5/9/2022
/ Cal-OSHA ,
California ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Masks ,
New Guidance ,
Occupational Exposure ,
Public Health ,
Workplace Safety
As discussed in our previous blog, on April 1, 2022, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge, Terry Green, granted summary judgment in favor of individuals represented by D.C.-based nonprofit Judicial Watch, declaring Assembly Bill...more
4/8/2022
/ Board of Directors ,
California ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Corporate Governance ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Equal Protection ,
Injunctions ,
New Legislation ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities Regulation ,
State Constitutions ,
Woman Board Members
For decades, employers had been free to gather employees to discuss – in a non-coercive manner – the employer’s views on unionization, and had been free to share with employees what employees’ rights were with respect to the...more
California law requires employers to furnish a “safe and healthful” workplace to employees. Now that the line between “workplace” and “home” has been blurred for so many workers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the law...more
On March 30, 2022, three judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overruled prior precedent allowing “implied” contracts to survive the expiration of a written agreement. The instant panel held, instead,...more
As foreshadowed by the NLRB General Counsel’s August 2021 Advice Memorandum, the vacillating standard for the legality of employer handbooks and policies and confidentiality requirements during open employer-investigations...more
3/11/2022
/ Boeing ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Labor Reform ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Section 7
A recent California Court of Appeal decision confirms that a California employer may be liable to an at-will employee who relocates to accept a new employment position, when the employer’s description of the kind or character...more
2/25/2022
/ Appeals ,
At-Will Employment ,
Employee Relocations ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Job Duties ,
Labor Code ,
Labor Regulations ,
Misrepresentation ,
Summary Judgment ,
Wage and Hour
On Friday, December 10, 2021, the Board announced in its regulatory agenda that it plans to engage in rulemaking on the standard for determining whether two employers are “joint employers” under the NLRA. ...more
12/16/2021
/ Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Franchises ,
Joint Employers ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Staffing Agencies ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Unions
The ability to form smaller bargaining units by breaking up larger aspects of an employer’s organization—sometimes called “micro-units”—is generally seen as an effort to enhance the ability of unions to gain entry into an...more
Google recently suffered a blow in its ongoing National Labor Relations Board litigation, when an Administrative Law Judge appointed to rule on a discovery dispute ordered the Silicon Valley company to turn over the lion’s...more
12/6/2021
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Discovery ,
Discovery Disputes ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Evidence ,
Google ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Retaliation ,
Subpoenas ,
Unions ,
Work-Product Doctrine
On November 10, 2021, the National Labor Relations Board announced that it is seeking public input to address whether the Board should award consequential damages to make employees whole for economic losses and under what...more
11/17/2021
/ Damages ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Reform ,
Layoffs ,
NLRB ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Statutory Violations ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Wage and Hour
In a 6–3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held on June 23, 2021 that a California regulation granting labor organizers the “right to take access” to agricultural employers’ private property to solicit union support violated...more
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, mail-ballot elections—rather than manual, in-person elections, have been mandatory for most NLRB representation elections. The NLRB’s recent ruling, on June 9, 2021, in Professional...more
On Wednesday, May 26, 2021, President Biden nominated Gwynne Wilcox to fill the last remaining vacancy on the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”). If confirmed by the Senate, Wilcox would be the second Democrat on the...more
In AT&T Mobility LLC , 370 NLRB No. 121 (2021), the NLRB majority (Members Ring and Emanuel) held that the Employer could lawfully maintain a workplace policy prohibiting its workers from recording conversations with their...more
As we enter the second year of the pandemic, it has become increasingly apparent the various vaccinations approved for safeguarding against COVID-19 are a key element to returning to normal business operations. Employers...more
The Coronavirus pandemic has spawned a lot of questions—and a lot of headaches—for employers, who within the past year have needed to adapt to rapidly changing health, regulatory, and technological landscapes. With the...more
In Universal Health Services, Inc., 370 N.L.R.B. No. 118 (April 30, 2021), the Board dismissed a complaint alleging that an employer’s bargaining proposals seeking significant concessions violated the duty to bargain in good...more
5/10/2021
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Discipline ,
Duty to Bargain ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Unions
Over the past few years, the National Labor Relations Board has frequently weighed in on employer’s workplace and employee handbook policies, examining whether an employer’s policy impacts employees’ rights under Section 7 of...more
Though the National Labor Relations Board has established a pathway for holding in-person union elections, mail-ballot elections continue to be the norm in many Regions across the country. Of course, the more mail-ballot...more
In a recent decision by the NLRB, the Board upheld the lawfulness, in part, of an arbitration agreement that required employees to maintain the confidentiality of the arbitration proceedings, including the discovery process...more
As we recently foreshadowed, given the slim Democratic margins in the House and Senate, and a Democratic President, there is the potential for the most significant amendments to the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA” or...more
It is an unfair labor practice for an employer to retaliate against (1) union supporters pursuant to Section 8(a)(3) of the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”), and (2) employees for filing a complaint with the National...more