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
In another much-anticipated reversal of existing precedent, as the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) completes its late-summer flurry before the Labor Day weekend, the Board issued a pair of decisions overruling...more
Continuing the rapid flow of overturned precedents, in a 3-1 decision released on August 31, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) redrew the line on when a single person’s individual action could be...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
Earlier this month, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued its decision in McLaren Macomb, 372 NLRB No. 58 (2023), holding that not only are most non-disparagement and confidentiality clauses signed by employees...more
The National Labor Relations Board continues its December precedent merry-go-round with a return to the Specialty Healthcare, 357 NLRB 934 (2011) (“Specialty Healthcare”) standards for bargaining unit determinations. In...more
In a decision, Thryv, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 22, that was foreshadowed by recent invitations for briefs and prosecutorial conduct by NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo (see our prior posts here and here), the National Labor...more
Coming on the heels of the Labor Day holiday, in a long anticipated move, the National Labor Relations (“NLRB”) Board issued a draft of a new proposed joint employer standard, scheduled to be published on September 7, 2022. ...more
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
In its March 25 decision, the NLRB unanimously held that: (1) Tesla violated the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) after prohibiting employees from talking to the media; (2) Tesla did not violate the Act by calling...more
4/2/2021
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Elon Musk ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Section 7 ,
Tesla ,
Twitter ,
Unions
On February 1, National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) Acting General Counsel Peter Sung Ohr rescinded a slew of General Counsel Memos issued by his predecessor, Peter Robb. On February 2, Ohr continued his actions by rolling...more
In the first known of its kind objection to an ongoing NLRB proceeding, an employer has urged the NLRB to dismiss an unfair labor charge against it, arguing that the agency is unable to prosecute the matter, in light of...more
President Biden named Peter Sung Ohr as Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board today. Ohr is a career employee of the NLRB, having served as a Field Attorney, Deputy Assistant General Counsel in the...more
One day after a standoff between President Biden and NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb resulted in his unprecedented termination, President Biden fired the NLRB’s second-ranked attorney, NLRB Deputy General Counsel Alice Stock,...more
On his first day in office, President Biden fired NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb, according to a report by Bloomberg News. This marks the first time in the history of the NLRB that a President has terminated the agency’s...more
On November 30, 2020, the NLRB Regional Director issued a Complaint against the Yotel Boston hotel and Unite Here Local 26, alleging the Hotel unlawfully recognized and provided improper assistance to the Union....more
After an initial COVID-19 related delay, the sweeping new NLRB representation election rules that reversed the Obama-era “quickie” election process were about to go into effect on May 31, 2020. However, an eleventh-hour...more
The NLRB announced today in a press release that “[d]ue to the extraordinary circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” all representation elections, including mail ballot elections, will be suspended for the next two...more
The Board continues churning out precedent-setting decisions as year-end approaches. Two days before the Christmas holiday, in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 368 NLRB No. 146 (Dec. 16, 2019), the NLRB applied its new view on handbook...more
Still hard at work as we head into mid-September, the National Labor Relations Board, in a 3-1 decision (Chairman Ring and Members Kaplan and Emanuel in the majority, Member McFerran dissenting) announced a three-step test...more
On August 14, 2019, the NLRB issued its first decision addressing employer conduct related to mandatory arbitration agreements and Section 7 activity since the Supreme Court decided Epic Systems Corp v. Lewis, 584 U.S. __,...more
8/16/2019
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Collective Actions ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employment Contract ,
Epic Systems Corp v Lewis ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 7 ,
Wage and Hour
Continuing its efforts to overturn precedent, the NLRB General Counsel’s Division of Advice has issued a new advice memorandum looking to strike at the most recognizable sign of unionism in urban areas today – – the...more
In what could signify the beginning of the end for Purple Communications, Inc., 361 NLRB 1050 (2014) and guaranteed employee access to Employer computer systems for union organizing purposes, the NLRB issued a notice on...more
Following up on the NLRB’s decision in The Boeing Company, 365 NLRB No. 154 (Dec. 14, 2017), on June 6, NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb issued a new Guidance Memorandum (18-04) detailing how NLRB Regional Offices receiving...more