President Trump has nominated Crystal Carey to serve as the next National Labor Relations Board General Counsel. The appointment is subject to Senate confirmation. If confirmed, Ms. Carey would replace the current Acting...more
On February 1, 2025, five (5) days after President Trump fired NLRB Member Gwynne A. Wilcox, and NLRB General Counsel Jennifer A. Abruzzo, President Trump fired the NLRB’s second-ranked attorney, NLRB Deputy General Counsel...more
On November 26, 2024, the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB” or the “Board”) General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, released GC Memorandum 25-02 to all Regional Directors, Officers-in-Charge, and Resident Officers, seeking...more
For the third time in eight years, both the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) prosecutorial and adjudicative arms face a pending partisan overhaul after President-elect Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025....more
12/3/2024
/ Compensation ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Employee Definition ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Injunctive Relief ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Disparagement Provisions ,
Protected Activity ,
Severance Agreements ,
Surveillance ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Unilateral Modification ,
Unions
Throwing out 75 Years of precedent in a single decision, on November 13, 2024, in Amazon.com Services LLC, the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) the Board overruled the seminal case of Babcock & Wilcox Co., 77 NLRB...more
On July 16, 2024, the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB” or the “Board”) General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, released GC Memorandum 24-05 to all field offices stating that the agency should continue “to aggressively seek...more
On April 8, 2024, National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) General Counsel (“GC”) Jennifer Abruzzo released a Memorandum providing guidance to Regional Directors, Officers-in-Charge, and Resident Officers concerning the GC’s...more
Declaring the NLRB’s rationale to be “nonsense,” on March 26, 2024, a unanimous three-judge panel for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in Stern Produce Company Inc v. NLRB, refused to enforce...more
4/1/2024
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Appellate Courts ,
Corporate Counsel ,
EEO ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employment Policies ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Surveillance ,
Unfair Labor Practices
On September 6, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law (A6604 / S4982) a bill banning businesses from requiring employees to attend meetings or listen to communications where the “primary purpose” of such...more
9/12/2023
/ Damages ,
Equitable Relief ,
General Meetings ,
New York ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Penalties ,
Political Speech ,
Religious Beliefs ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unions
On August 28, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) issued its decision in Intertape Polymer Corp., 372 NLRB No. 133 (2023) clarifying the standard by which the General Counsel satisfies her initial...more
As we previously reported in April 2022, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, asked the Board to revive the Joy Silk doctrine (which was rejected in 1969) and require...more
Following the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) highly-controversial decision in McLaren Macomb declaring most confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses in separation agreements to be unlawful, General Counsel...more
On March 20, 2023, NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo released a new Memorandum, updating all Regional Directors, Officers-in-Charge and Resident Officers regarding which issues must be submitted to the NLRB Division of...more
National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) General Counsel (“GC”) Jennifer Abruzzo stated over a year ago that 10(j) injunctions in NLRB charges were “one of the most important tools available to effectively enforce the...more
In an Advice Memorandum released on May 25, 2022, NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo laid out a blueprint for changes she’d like made to Board precedent concerning union representatives’ access to employer property. At...more
5/31/2022
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Union Elections ,
Union Organizers ,
Unions
With Congress failing to make the organizing process easier for unions, the NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo is now asking the Board to require employers to recognize unions without a secret ballot election.
As...more
4/14/2022
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Rights ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Secret Ballot ,
Union Elections ,
Unions
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
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
On February 7, 2022, the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment issued a report recommending, among other things, increased coordination among agencies working on labor and employment matters....more
On February 1, 2022, the General Counsel (“GC”) of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) announced a new initiative encouraging NLRB Regions to seek injunctive relief under Section 10 of the National Labor Relations Act...more
On November 10, 2021, General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memorandum outlining bargaining obligations under OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard to Protect Workers from Coronavirus (“ETS”). Responding to Inquiries...more
11/11/2021
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Covered Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Infectious Diseases ,
New Rules ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
OSHA ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
The recently-sworn in General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, Jennifer Abruzzo, has had a busy month, setting the stage for a slate of new enforcement initiatives. First, the GC issued Advice Memorandum 21-04...more
Less than a month after being sworn in as the new General Counsel of the NLRB, Jennifer Abruzzo defined a bold new direction for the Board’s enforcement priorities in a memo issued on August 12, 2021. The memo, Mandatory...more
8/16/2021
/ Employee Handbooks ,
Employee Rights ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Relations ,
Misclassification ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Right to Strike ,
Strategic Enforcement Plan ,
Union Dues ,
Unions ,
Weingarten Rights
On April 30, 2021, in National Association of Broadcast Employees & Technicians, 370 NLRB No. 114 (2021), the Board declined to opine on the validity of President Biden’s termination of former General Counsel Peter Robb and...more
On March 31, 2021, the NLRB’s Acting General Counsel Peter Ohr issued a Memorandum entitled “Effectuation of the National Labor Relations Act through Vigorous Enforcement of Mutual Aid or Protection and Inherently Concerted...more