The U.S. Supreme Court issued two blockbuster decisions last week, both of which likely will curtail the ability of federal agencies, including the NLRB, to prosecute cases and expand the law.
In a 6-3 decision announced...more
7/2/2024
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Administrative Procedure Act ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Government Agencies ,
Jury Trial ,
NLRB ,
SCOTUS ,
SEC v Jarkesy ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Regulation ,
Separation of Powers ,
Seventh Amendment
As we’ve discussed previously (see here and here), next up on the NLRB chopping block is whether non-compete agreements create a “chilling effect” on employees in the exercise of their Section 7 rights of the National Labor...more
On March 29, 2024, the Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) released a final rule amending the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (“OSH Act”), clarifying who can serve as an...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
As we recently discussed, the National Labor Relation Board’s (“NLRB”) monumental ruling in Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC, 327 NLRB No. 130 (2023), is going to have a significant impact on the manner in which...more
9/28/2023
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Cemex ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disciplinary Proceedings ,
NLRB ,
Retroactive Application ,
Secret Ballot ,
Termination ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Union Organizers ,
Unions
In a very active end of summer for labor law, the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) ruled in a 2-1 decision, in Quickway Transportation, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 127, that a company’s closure of a terminal where its drivers...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
Late summer brings picnics, hiking, and general fun. It also brings a slew of NLRB decisions as the agency’s fiscal year comes to an end on September 30. One of the more highly-anticipated decisions concerns the lawfulness of...more
Late summer brings picnics, hiking, and general fun. It also brings a slew of NLRB decisions as the agency’s fiscal year comes to an end on September 30. One of the more highly-anticipated decisions concerns the lawfulness of...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 Monday, the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) issued a decision making it riskier and more complicated for employers to discipline employees for abusive workplace conduct alleged to have arisen within the context of...more
The National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) issued a ruling on February 21, 2023, in McLaren Macomb, 372 NLRB No. 58 (2023), which in effect finds broad confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses in severance agreements...more
A divided three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals partially affirmed a federal district court’s decision to vacate part of a rule issued by the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) in 2019 that...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
For more than five decades, employers could cease deduction of dues at the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement as a legitimate economic weapon. It was only recently that, as part of the constant shifting of...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
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 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
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