#WorkforceWednesday: NLRB Agenda Puts Pressure on Union and Non-Union Employers - Employment Law This Week®
Employers with a non-unionized workforce often mistakenly believe that they are not covered by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or the “Act”). The NLRA is most commonly known as the law that guarantees employees the...more
The U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed revisions to the existing rules governing who can participate in OSHA's onsite workplace inspections. The purpose of these...more
Under the Biden Administration’s influence, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB or “the Board”) has proposed a new Final Rule for determining joint employer status under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). The...more
The National Labor Relations Board has released more statistics that further confirm what labor lawyers suspected: Employers are subject to more unfair labor practice charges, Employees and labor organizations are...more
Think over the policies in your handbooks. Do you have one that requires workplace civility (“thou shalt not be disrespectful or insubordinate to thine co-workers or supervisors”)? Or one that requires that employees keep...more
As we have observed several times this year, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or the “Board”), under the majority appointed by President Biden, has taken a number of actions to widely expand workers’ rights under...more
The National Labor Relations Board continues its recent streak of overturning board decisions from the Trump administration that limit the rights of employees to organize and complain about working conditions. The latest...more
In Memorandum GC 23-08 (Memo), Jennifer A. Abruzzo, General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), announced that her office would target for prosecution both union and nonunion employers for offering,...more
In Central States v. Wingra, No. 21-cv-3684, 2023 WL 199360 (N.D. Ill. Jan. 17, 2023), the district court held that an employer expelled from a multiemployer pension plan may not owe withdrawal liability because the permanent...more
This week, we examine how several recent pronouncements and actions by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and its General Counsel’s office are creating new challenges for employers, both union and non-union: The NLRB...more
On December 13, 2022, in a 3-2 decision, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or the Board) added consequential damages as a “make-whole” remedy for unfair labor practices, expanding the relief available to workers....more
The NLRB General Counsel’s Office is not wasting any time making changes to national labor law policy. General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo recently issued her third memorandum in just two months. Abruzzo’s first memo,...more
In her first memorandum as General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo laid out a clear agenda for the new enforcement priorities of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”). All unionized and nonunionized private sector employers...more
Perhaps you’ve seen it: A gigantic, inflatable, plastic, fanged, red-eyed, and beclawed rat, nicknamed Scabby, that unions sometimes deploy when protesting non-union businesses. Former NLRB General Counsel targeted Scabby for...more
Before the 2020 election, then US Presidential candidate Joe Biden vowed to be the “strongest labor president you have ever had.” And after a little more than 100 days, President Biden shows every sign of living up to his...more
Last week, the NLRB’s General Counsel rolled back Trump-era financial disclosure requirements for unions. Even without a complaint, unions were required to explain fees charged to nonmembers. Now, beyond routine financial...more
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 landmark ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, 138 S. Ct. 2448 (2018), which made it illegal for public sector labor unions to...more
In a positive development for non-union contractors, a federal judge has reaffirmed the traditional defenses available to employers that face claims they are running unlawful double-breasted operations. On March 20, 2020 the...more
Earlier this month, the Seventh Circuit joined the consensus across the country, concluding in two separate cases that unions that collected fair share fees prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, 585,...more
On May 7, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision that will be welcomed by employers desiring to maintain differences in the benefits provided to their union and nonunion employees. In Merck, Sharp & Dohme...more
Does an employer automatically engage in unlawful discrimination when it grants an improved benefit to its non-union employees but withholds the improvement from its union employees who are covered by a collective bargaining...more
In its 1988 Beck decision, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that non-union members who were part of a collective bargaining unit could not be assessed dues for purposes other than collective bargaining or other matters...more
n March 1, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”), in a 3-1 decision, ruled that Beck objectors cannot be required to financially support the lobbying efforts of unions because lobbying costs are not chargeable as...more
The National Labor Relations Board just decided that private sector unions cannot use fees paid by nonmembers to fund their lobbying efforts. Especially when coupled with last year’s momentous Janus decision at the U.S....more
On January 11, 2019, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania held that absent extraordinary circumstances, requiring contractors to execute a project labor agreement (a "PLA") in connection with a bid for a public construction...more