On June 1, 2021, in a 5-2 decision, the Missouri Supreme Court sitting en banc affirmed a circuit court decision that voided in its entirety HB 1413, which was enacted by the Missouri legislature in 2018 and sought to change...more
1. I have a unionized workforce. Do I need to bargain before mandating that my employees are Covid vaccinated before reporting to work?
With the CDC largely ending mask requirements for those who are Covid vaccinated,...more
It’s become increasingly common for businesses to subcontract workers to perform jobs at a location that is shared with the business or other neutral third parties. When picketing at common job sites shared by the employees...more
Key Points:
The Western District of the Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a narrow portion of section 110.010.B.4(a) of the University of Missouri System Rules and Regulations that prohibits employees or students from...more
The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO Act) (H.R. 842) is a sweeping effort to amend longstanding labor laws to facilitate union and employee organizing efforts. The union-friendly legislation would make the most...more
4/2/2021
/ Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Dispute Resolution ,
Joint Employers ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Penalties ,
Right to Picket ,
Right to Strike ,
Right to Work ,
Taft-Hartley Act ,
Union Elections ,
Union Organizers ,
Unions
The saga of Scabby the Rat continues with the transition of the Biden administration and the recent unceremonious ouster of now-former General Counsel Robb. The debate focuses on whether the presence of Scabby, the large...more
On November 16, 2020, the Missouri Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Missouri National Education Association, et al. v. Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, et al., Ferguson-Florissant School...more
As the 2020 general election approaches with many employees working remotely and participating on social media platforms, employers can anticipate that employees will engage in political speech and activity in the workplace....more
10/27/2020
/ Employer Rights ,
Harassment ,
Hatch Act ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Political Debates ,
Political Speech ,
Remote Working ,
Social Media ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance
On July 21, 2020, the NLRB released the decision General Motors LLC and Charles Robinson (GM) which is significant not only for its substance but for its timing. The GM decision held that abusive conduct and speech is not...more
During the last half of May 2020, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) issued four decisions upholding the legality of employer facially neutral work rules. Two of the decisions applied the Boeing standard to assess the...more
Key Points-
•Media policies which prohibit employees from communicating with the media must be narrowly tailored to protect legitimate business interests such as protecting confidential information and controlling...more
On March 16, 2020, the Board issued its decision in Baylor University Medical Center and Dora S. Camacho reversing the 2018 ALJ decision and holding that Confidentiality and No Participation in Third-Party Claim provisions in...more
COVID-19 presents a formidable health and safety challenge to employers, and unionized employers also must address issues in the context of their obligations under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and a collective...more
Key points-
• On February 26, 2020, the National Labor Relations Board issued its final rule on the joint employer standard limiting the imposition of joint employer status to businesses that exercise substantial, direct...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently issued a decision in Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit v. NLRB, which resulted in the denial of collective bargaining rights to adjunct faculty members employed by...more
The UAW strike against GM represents the latest strike in a string of labor disputes between management and union workers. Continuation of health benefits during a strike is always a consideration in such situations. ...more
On September 6, 2019, the NLRB (Board) issued the decision, Kroger Limited Partnership I Mid-Atlantic and United Food and Commercial Workers Union 400 (Kroger decision), which overruled Sandusky Mall Co., and limited the...more
Key Points-
Direct evidence of a plan to engage in repeated strikes to achieve a common goal establishes that such strikes are unprotected, intermittent strikes.
Only in the absence of direct evidence will the Board...more
In a notice of proposed rulemaking and request for comments published on August 12, 2019, the NLRB exercised its discretionary rulemaking authority to propose changes to three discretionary election bar policies:
- The...more
Key Points-
The City of Chicago passed the most comprehensive predictable scheduling law in the country which applies to industries beyond the service sector, including healthcare and manufacturing....more
On May 17, 2019, the Office of the General Counsel (GC) released an advice memorandum dated December 20, 2018 signaling the National Labor Relations Board’s (Board) intent to continue to overturn precedent. The advice memo...more
As previously noted in this alert, the U.S. Supreme Court continues to strongly support the enforcement of individual arbitration agreements. The Supreme Court decision released on April 24, 2019, Lamps Plus Inc. v. Varela,...more
4/30/2019
/ Ambiguous ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Arbitration ,
Consent ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Federal v State Law Application ,
Lamps Plus Inc v Varela ,
Motion to Compel ,
Preemption ,
SCOTUS
Memorandum 19-05, issued by the NLRB Division of Operations Management of the Office of the General Counsel in March 2019, gives Regional Directors a new tool to expedite cases when a charged party fails to cooperate with an...more
On April 2, 2019, in a 3-1 decision split along party lines, the Trump administration’s National Labor Relations Board (Board) appointees significantly narrowed the circumstances under which a successor employer will be...more
Unions commonly utilize clarification petitions to invoke accretion principles and try to bypass election procedures. However, the National Labor Relations Board’s recent decision in Recology Hay Road and Teamsters Local 315...more