This article addresses many employment-related issues facing employers in the wake of hurricane-related disasters; consequently, in addition to federal laws, we also focus on certain state laws, especially those in the areas...more
8/21/2020
/ Business Closures ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Charitable Donations ,
COBRA ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Covered Employees ,
Data Privacy ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Force Majeure Clause ,
Foreign Workers ,
Form I-9 ,
H-1B ,
Health and Safety ,
Health Insurance ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Health Plan Sponsors ,
Highly-Skilled Workers Visa ,
HIPAA Privacy Rule ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Hurricane Season ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Labor Relations ,
Medical Leave ,
Military Leave ,
Military Service Members ,
Natural Disasters ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
Retirement ,
Retirement Plan ,
Retirement Plan Providers ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unemployment Benefits ,
Unemployment Compensation System ,
Unions ,
USCIS ,
USERRA ,
Visa Applications ,
Visas ,
Volunteers ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Hazards ,
Workplace Injury ,
Workplace Safety
On the eve of their scheduled implementation date, a federal court judge in Washington, D.C. struck down significant portions of the National Labor Relation’s Board new union representation procedures – handing a significant...more
As more states legalize medicinal and recreational cannabis, many states are requiring that cannabis employers enter into a “labor peace agreement” with a union in order to obtain or maintain a license to grow, manufacture,...more
6/1/2020
/ Agribusiness ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unions
Although the new Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES ACT) contains important help for businesses, it also presents potentially significant labor issues for any mid-size company (500 to 10,000 employees)...more
The Fisher Phillips COVID-19 Taskforce has assembled this guidance document, containing answers to a series of Frequently Asked Questions, especially designed for unionized employers. The Taskforce also maintains a...more
3/23/2020
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) ,
Force Majeure Clause ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Information Requests ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Union Elections ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules ,
Workplace Safety
The U.S. House of Representatives just passed a bill that would tilt the scales of labor law unequivocally in favor of organized labor. The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act would bring about a radical shift in labor...more
2/11/2020
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Rights ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gag Rule ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Joint Employers ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Misclassification ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Pending Legislation ,
Persuader Rules ,
Presidential Veto ,
Protests ,
Quickie Election Rules ,
Right to Strike ,
Right to Work ,
Secondary Boycott ,
Trump Administration ,
Union Elections ,
Union Organizers ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
The National Labor Relations Board just ruled that employers may now require confidentiality from employees involved in open workplace investigations. Importantly, Tuesday’s decision in Apogee Retail LLC resolves conflicting...more
12/19/2019
/ Boeing ,
Confidential Information ,
Confidentiality Policies ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Rights ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Workplace Investigations
The National Labor Relations Board just decided that employers have the right to cease union dues collections once the relevant collective bargaining agreement expires, again restoring balance to the labor relations...more
The National Labor Relations Board took the latest step in the long-simmering debate over whether college teaching and research assistants could unionize when it released a proposed rule on Friday that would once again block...more
9/24/2019
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Colleges ,
Comment Period ,
Educational Institutions ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Graduate Students ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Student Employees ,
Teaching Assistants ,
Unions ,
Universities
The news that President Trump selected Eugene Scalia to take over as Labor Secretary late last week caught some employers by surprise; after all, it was just a week ago that we were analyzing the track record of the...more
7/22/2019
/ Administrative Appointments ,
Affirmative Action ,
Data Collection ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Labor Policies ,
Medical Leave ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Pay Data ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Secretary of Labor ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage & Hour Division (WHD)
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) threatened to start to carry out a series of immigration raids this weekend seeking to identify and apprehend undocumented individuals – with some potentially occurring at the...more
7/16/2019
/ Audits ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Eligibility Verification ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Form I-9 ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
NLRA ,
Raids ,
Search Warrant ,
Undocumented Immigrants
When the news broke Friday afternoon that Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta would be resigning from his post, employers across the country began wondering what this transition would mean for them. You may have even heard...more
7/15/2019
/ Affirmative Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
EEO-1 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Foreign Workers ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
Joint Employers ,
OFCCP ,
OLMS ,
OSHA ,
Pay Data ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Resignation ,
Secretary of Labor ,
USCIS ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Safety
With one final jolt to end the year, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that the impractical joint employer test originally adopted by the Obama-era National Labor Relations Board in 2015 was properly enacted and therefore...more
Employee walkouts and protests are likely to occur on a large scale starting yesterday and lasting through Thursday, spurred on by the union-supported “Fight for $15” movement and in anticipation of the upcoming midterm...more
10/3/2018
/ Attendance ,
Caregivers ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Policies ,
Fast-Food Industry ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Janitorial Services ,
Minimum Wage ,
NLRA ,
Private Property ,
Professors ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Protests ,
Restaurant Industry ,
SEIU ,
Social Media Policy ,
Strike ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
In a 5-4 decision on the final day of the 2017-2018 term, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that the First Amendment prohibits public sector entities from collecting fees from non-union members. This decision is a...more
6/27/2018
/ Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Fair Share Contribution ,
First Amendment ,
Janus v AFSCME ,
Non-Union ,
Payroll Deductions ,
Public Sector Unions ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Stare Decisis ,
Union Dues
In what employers are sure to hope is just a temporary—but stinging—setback, the National Labor Relations Board today vacated its December ruling that had freed employers from having to deal with an unworkable and expansive...more
One day after overturning the Obama-era’s joint-employer standard and in the waning days of Philip Miscimarra’s Chairmanship, the National Labor Relations Board struck down the pro-union use of micro-units, a tool used to...more
The newly constituted National Labor Relations Board announced that a troublesome joint-employer test adopted in 2015 would be immediately scrapped, instead reaffirming its prior reasonable standard for determining...more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. The law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, and September 2017 was no different. In order to make sure that you stay on top of the latest...more
10/7/2017
/ Appeals ,
Class Action ,
DACA ,
Dear Colleague Letter ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Equal Pay ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
First Amendment ,
Gig Economy ,
Google ,
GrubHub ,
Hurricane Irma ,
Janus v AFSCME ,
Misclassification ,
Obama Administration ,
OFCCP ,
Over-Time ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
Public Sector Unions ,
Rescission ,
SCOTUS ,
Secretary of Labor ,
Sexual Assault ,
Shop Fee Arrangements ,
Title IX ,
Travel Ban ,
Trump Administration ,
White-Collar Exemptions
In a move that must have labor unions across the country trembling with fear, the Supreme Court today announced that it will once again take up the issue of whether public sector agency shop fee arrangements are prohibited by...more
Among the most crucial federal agencies undergoing a transformation under the new presidential administration is the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). During the eight years of the Obama administration, with the Board...more
9/6/2017
/ Banner Health System ,
Bargaining Units ,
Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. ,
Civility ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Columbia University ,
Confidentiality Policies ,
Corporate Counsel ,
D.R. Horton v NLRB ,
Email Policies ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employment Policies ,
Internal Investigations ,
Joint Employers ,
Labor Relations ,
Micro-Unions ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Presidential Appointments ,
Purple Communications ,
Quickie Election Rules ,
Section 7 ,
Specialty Healthcare ,
Student Athletes ,
Temporary Employees ,
Trump Administration ,
Unions
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While it always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, the last few months have seen an unprecedented number of changes. June 2017 was no different, with...more
7/7/2017
/ Administrative Interpretation ,
Advocate Health Care v Stapleton ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Church Plans ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Discrimination ,
Electronic Records ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Harassment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Interlocutory Appeals ,
Joint Employers ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Microsoft v Baker ,
Minimum Salary ,
Misclassification ,
New Legislation ,
NLRB ,
Opinion Letter ,
OSHA ,
Over-Time ,
Popular ,
Public Accommodation ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Title III ,
Travel Ban ,
Trump v Hawaii ,
Trump v International Refugee Assistance Project ,
Uber ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Website Accessibility ,
White-Collar Exemptions
In what appears to be a first-of-its kind decision, the National Labor Relations Board recently determined that an employer committed an unfair labor practice when one of its managers asked a pointed question via text message...more
6/14/2017
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Interrogations ,
Leave of Absence ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Text Messages ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Union Elections ,
Unions
May Day has historically been a day marked by workers’ rights protests, with union organizing activities and other employee advocacy actions taking place across the country on what is now known as “International Workers’...more
4/24/2017
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Immigrants ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Protests ,
Public Relations ,
SEIU ,
Strike ,
Trump Administration ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Unions ,
Workplace Communication
After his initial selection of Andrew Puzder was scuttled by staunch opposition from Democrats and worker advocates, President Trump nominated Alexander Acosta to be the country’s next Secretary of Labor. This Cabinet-level...more