On August 9, 2024, the NLRB denied Pardee RAND Graduate School’s (“RAND”) request for review of a regional director’s Decision and Direction of Election (DDE) finding that a petitioned-for unit of graduate policy researchers...more
As students in higher education flock toward unionization, private sector colleges and universities (educational institutions or institutions) are forced to reconcile the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act’s (FERPA)...more
Private colleges and universities employing student workers face the unique challenge of balancing privacy obligations and a growing push from federal labor authorities to release student information to unions. Recent...more
If you administer a 403(b) plan you should be familiar with the term “universal availability”. This concept means that, as a general rule, all employees must be allowed to make elective deferrals into the plan immediately...more
A client recently asked The FAIR Center to staff a hearing panel on a complex set of allegations against a tenured faculty member. I chaired the panel along with two of the client’s panelists from their own internal pool, so...more
The National Labor Relations Board (Board) recently conducted an election in which student workers in the Office of Admission (Admissions) at Hamilton College (College) voted 25 to 20 to be represented by Local One of the...more
On March 12, 2021, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) announced that it is withdrawing a rule proposed in September 2019 that would have excluded undergraduate and graduate students at private colleges and...more
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) recently announced it was changing course on whether students should be considered employees and therefore can unionize. This change of course returns to previous Board...more
The “Respect Graduate Student Workers Act,” introduced by Representative Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), aims to classify graduate student workers as employees and ensure them “full labor protections” under the National Labor Relations...more
Maintaining its recent focus on compliance issues particular to educational institutions, OFCCP published a technical assistance guide for educational institutions on October 11, 2019. The guide follows a flurry of OFCCP...more
Colleges and universities have witnessed major developments in September with student teaching and research assistants at private schools losing the right to unionize but student-athletes in California gaining the right to be...more
Academic institutions will appreciate this. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has issued its much-awaited Technical Assistance Guidance for Educational Institutions. In publishing these materials, the...more
Since 2000, the National Labor Relations Board has taken the position that some graduate students who are paid for teaching and research functions by private colleges and universities qualify as employees eligible to organize...more
On September 23, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that addresses the long-standing issue of whether undergraduate and graduate students who perform services for...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
On September 20, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) issued a proposed rule that would exclude from the National Labor Relations Act (Act) undergraduate and graduate students at private colleges and universities...more
As anticipated, today the National Labor Relations Board published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) proposing a regulation which would establish that students at private colleges and universities who perform any...more
Last week, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) released a proposed rule that would remove graduate and undergraduate students who perform work for pay in conjunction with their academic studies from the definition of an...more
As we discussed in an earlier client alert, the National Labor Relations Board announced in May that it would be issuing proposed rules that would establish a “standard for determining whether students who perform services at...more
After devoting its first opinion letter to addressing aspects of its jurisdiction over higher education institutions, OFCCP recently provided additional guidance about the AAP obligations of educational institutions....more
OFCCP offers answers to puzzling questions. Wondering about whether to count student workers? Or whether multiple locations can be combined into one affirmative action plan? These are questions that have vexed many...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Ninth Circuit has held that, under federal and California law, college student-athletes are not employees of either the NCAA or the Pac-12, the regulatory bodies that govern college sports....more
We previously reported, in 2016, that the Obama-era National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued a decision in Columbia University that paved the way for graduate students to unionize at private higher education...more
Reed College has been directed to permit a subset of its student workers (known as Housing Advisers or HAs) to hold an election to form a union. Reed College opposed an election arguing that: 1) HAs cannot meet the statutory...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A 2016 decision of the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) finding that the graduate students at Columbia University were employees under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) has been teed up for...more