Back in April 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a final rule that would have banned non-compete agreements nationwide as of September 4, 2024. (You can read our alert on the FTC’s final rule here.) However, on...more
9/18/2024
/ Competition ,
Confidential Information ,
Contract Terms ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Labor Reform ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants
On June 28, 2024, in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, upending 40 years of judicial precedent holding that federal courts should defer to...more
On June 28, 2024, in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, upending 40 years of judicial precedent holding that federal courts should defer to...more
On June 13, 2024, the Supreme Court held that the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) is subject to the same standard as any other litigant when it seeks a preliminary injunction in unfair labor practice cases. This...more
6/20/2024
/ Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Starbucks ,
Starbucks Corp. v McKinney ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Union Elections ,
Unions
In an anticipated yet groundbreaking turn of events, on April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) voted 3-2 to issue a Final Non-Compete Clause Rule (the “Final Rule”) which bans U.S. employers from using...more
4/26/2024
/ Competition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Bans ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
FTC Act ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Notice Requirements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Unfair Competition
In Glacier Northwest v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local No. 174, the U.S. Supreme Court held—in a near-unanimous opinion earlier this month—that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) did not preempt a company’s...more
On June 29, 2023, in the highly anticipated cases Students for Fair Admissions v. President & Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the...more
6/30/2023
/ Affirmative Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
College Admissions ,
Diversity ,
Educational Institutions ,
Equal Protection ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Race Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Students for Fair Admissions v University of North Carolina ,
Title VII
On May 18, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) regional office in Los Angeles filed a complaint against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Pac-12 Conference, and the University of Southern...more
6/8/2023
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
College Athletes ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employee Definition ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Joint Employers ,
Labor Law Violations ,
NCAA ,
NLRB ,
University of Southern California (USC)
For more than a year, the Federal Trade Commission has been mulling on whether the federal government should regulate employee non-compete agreements. Traditionally, those agreements limit where and for whom an employee may...more
As expected, in the last month the National Labor Relations Board has continued to issue decisions that reverse Trump-era precedents and expand the protections available to employees and unions. In Noah’s Ark Processors, LLC...more
6/2/2023
/ Employee Rights ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Penalties ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Unions
Following the official ending of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) released a number of key updates to its COVID-19 technical assistance document, “What you Should...more
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) proposed a new rule which, if adopted, would ban U.S. employers from using non-compete agreements. In its notice of proposed rulemaking (“NPR”), the FTC sought public...more
In a unanimous decision, the Illinois Supreme Court determined that the Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) is pre-empted by the Labor Management Relations Act for many employees covered by a collective bargaining...more
4/25/2023
/ Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Class Action ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Employee Privacy Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
LMRA ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Preemption
On March 15, 2023, the Chicago City Council overwhelmingly voted to approve an ordinance requiring labor peace agreements between workers and Chicago-funded nonprofit organizations providing critical public health and social...more
4/6/2023
/ City of Chicago ,
Contractors ,
Employee Rights ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Illinois ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Relations ,
Local Ordinance ,
Public Health Service (PHS) ,
Social Services ,
Tax Exempt Entities ,
Unions
Last year, we wrote about former National Football League coach Brian Flores and his lawsuit in February 2022 alleging racial discrimination against the NFL and several of its teams. In his lawsuit, Flores claimed that the...more
3/16/2023
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Athletes ,
Contract Terms ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Football ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Minorities ,
NFL ,
Race Discrimination
On Friday, February 17, 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court issued another blockbuster ruling interpreting the Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”). In a 4 to 3 decision, the Court in Cothorn v. White Castle Systems held...more
2/20/2023
/ Accrual Requirements ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Damages ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Employee Privacy Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Fingerprints ,
IL Supreme Court ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information
The Illinois Biometric Privacy Act (“BIPA”) has been a fertile source of class action litigation in recent years as courts continue to grapple with the scope of potential liability of employers and other entities who have...more
2/13/2023
/ Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Class Action ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fingerprints ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Statutory Violations
Happy New Year! Several employment laws became effective January 1, 2023, and our team at Franczek P.C. has compiled them in its new Labor & Employment Law Legislative Update, focused on new laws in effect in 2023. The new...more
1/10/2023
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hairstyle Discrimination ,
Illinois ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Relations ,
Minimum Wage ,
State Constitutions ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules
As we’ve previously reported, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB, or the Board) under the Biden administration has been issuing decisions that are more union-friendly and less favorable to employers. Earlier this month,...more
As we’ve previously reported, union organizing is on the upswing and the NLRB is beginning to issue decisions that reverse Trump-era precedents that were generally more favorable to employers. This is the first in what we...more
10/20/2022
/ Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Dues Checkoff ,
Employees ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
SCOTUS ,
Strike ,
Union Dues ,
Unions
Despite the always shifting pendulum of labor law, unionization rates in the private sector have decreased and remained low since the 1970’s. However, a recent surge of unionization efforts, coupled with unique economic...more
For decades, employers have been permitted to hold mandatory meetings or “captive audience speeches” in response to union organizing campaigns to present the company’s position on unionization. On April 7, 2022, the National...more
4/19/2022
/ Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Unions
Brian Flores’ recent class action race discrimination lawsuit against the National Football League and its teams provides a cautionary tale as to what can happen when an organization professes to value diversity, equity and...more
This morning, the United States Senate passed a bill creating the “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021.” The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill earlier this week, meaning...more
2/10/2022
/ #MeToo ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Sexual Assault ,
Sexual Harassment
This week, Governor Pritzker signed Senate Bill 1169 into law, clarifying the legislative intent of the Health Care Right of Conscience Act (HRCRA) to allow employers the right to “take any measure or impose any...more