Our January update includes a new Court of Session case giving (a degree of) certainty on settlement agreements prohibiting future unknown claims and a new case on constructive dismissal focusing on the rules around delaying...more
In any FLSA lawsuit involving unionized workers, the defense lawyer must always look for a preemption defense. That means that the lawsuit is not properly before a Judge because it involves union contract interpretation, the...more
In United Utility Workers’ Association of Canada v Dataco Utility Services Ltd., 2022 CanLII 13414 (AB GAA), Arbitrator John Moreau, Q.C., dismissed 11 grievances filed on behalf of 11 service technicians (Grievors) of Dataco...more
In Bunge Hamilton Canada, Hamilton, Ontario v. United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, Local 175, the arbitrator found that a mandatory vaccination policy requiring unvaccinated unionized employees to be placed on unpaid...more
It is mid-November, and the Board is at a full complement, and even has a new General Counsel. While we haven’t seen anything significant (or really, anything at all) come out of the newly constituted Board we know the new...more
On May 15, 2017, the seventh circuit ruled that unless the language in a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) explicitly states that the employee must resolve his statutory and contractual rights through the grievance...more
On May 15, 2017, the Seventh Circuit issued its ruling in Vega v. New Forest Home Cemetery, LLC, finding that an employee was not barred from bringing a Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) claim in a judicial forum, despite his...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Court of Appeal has held that unless a collective bargaining agreement includes an explicitly stated, clear and unmistakable, intent to waive the right to a judicial forum for statutory causes of...more
In another example of the inconsistency of the current state of Board law, a 2-1 majority of the NLRB ruled that an employer not only had a management right but it wasn’t necessary that this right be expressly set forth in...more
In a 2-1 ruling in DirecTV Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed the NLRB’s ruling that DirecTV must reinstate technicians who were terminated for complaining about a...more
In Brandon v. Sage Corp., No. 14-51320 (5th Cir. Dec. 10, 2015), the Fifth Circuit addressed whether a threat to cut a supervisor’s pay in half was, by itself, a “materially adverse employment action.” The plaintiff was a...more