The Chartwell Chronicles: Employment Law
Managing the Size and Structure of Your Post-Pandemic Workforce
#WorkforceWednesday: OSHA ETS on Hold, Retaliation Claims Increase, "Vaccination Ambassadors" - Employment Law This Week®
At an emergency hearing this morning in National Treasury Employees Union v. Vought, Judge Amy Berman Jackson once again halted the layoffs of over 1,000 employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The judge...more
On January 27, 2025 — seven days after he was sworn in — President Trump fired Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic member, and former Chair of, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”). Although Wilcox’s term was...more
An arbitrator recently issued the first award in Ontario to address and uphold the reasonableness of a hospital vaccination policy that provides for the termination of employment for non-compliance. In Lakeridge Health and...more
A recent jury verdict against Southwest Airlines and Transport Workers Union of America, Local 556 is an interesting study in the tension between an employer’s right to police an employee’s statements on social media and the...more
On October 29, 2021, in Blake v. University Health Network, 2021 ONSC 7139 (Blake), the Ontario Superior Court of Justice discontinued an interim injunction that it had issued on October 22, 2021, staying the terminations of...more
In Scott v. Community Living Temiskaming South, 2021 ONSC 5402 (Community Living), the court dismissed an employee’s claim for wrongful dismissal from his unionized position on the ground that it lacked jurisdiction to hear...more
As we previously reported, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) has been undergoing a seismic change of direction. With two memoranda published September 8th and September 15th, NLRB General Counsel...more
Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects the rights of employees to engage in “concerted activity,” regardless of whether they are members of a union. Concerted activity means two or more employees working...more
Galeotti v. International Union of Operating Eng’rs Local No. 3, 2020 WL 2188995 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020) John Galeotti, a former business agent for the union, alleged he was wrongfully terminated for refusing to contribute money...more
The National Labor Relations Board recently overturned a decision issued in 2014 and returned to its time-honored standard for post-arbitral deferral in unfair labor practice cases alleging discipline or discharge in...more
The Trump National Labor Relations Board (Board or NLRB) gifted employers a significant win on the eve of the Christmas holiday with its December 23 decision in United Parcel Service, Inc., 369 NLRB No. 1 (UPS), which...more
In yet another end-of-2019 decision overruling significant NLRA precedent, the Board reverted to the less stringent Spielberg / Olin standard for determining whether to defer to arbitration decisions in the context of Section...more
On December 23, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB, or the Board) overturned an Obama-era decision regarding deference to labor arbitration proceedings....more
In Local 702, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO v. National Labor Relations Board and Consolidated Communications, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently upheld the termination of a...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The NLRB has overturned a previous decision defining any employee’s protest in a group setting as protected concerted activity. In Alstate Maintenance, the Board has sought to adhere to the principles...more
A significant change in NLRB precedent during the last few years was the added requirement that an employer bargain over discretionary aspects of discipline in the period between the union acquiring representational rights...more
The last few decisions issued by the NLRB have addressed a wide spectrum of rather unique situations. Just in the last several days we saw decisions involving a combative registered nurse and a human resources representative...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Our mission here at Cal-Pecs is to illuminate how California employment law differs from the law that employers generally experience throughout America. In this back-to-basics piece, we provide some...more
At the same time that the current National Labor Relations Board is giving employees what seems like the unfettered ability to engage in disparagement, profane outbursts, and racist comments that accompany protected union or...more
Healthcare institutions have a moral and legal obligation to promote patient safety as an essential component of patient care. Supervisors and managers must be supportive of their staffs while remaining vigilant about the...more
Employee's Inability To Work For A Particular Supervisor Does Not Constitute A "Disability" - Higgins-Williams v. Sutter Med. Found., 237 Cal. App. 4th 78 (2015) - Michaelin Higgins-Williams worked as a clinical...more
Under the National Labor Relations Act, certain union activities are considered “protected.” That is, employees engaging in union activity, or union representatives carrying out their duties in the context of grievance...more
Any time an employer is involved in a franchise relationship, there are bound to be unique issues when legal disputes arise, particularly in the employment context. It is no longer surprising to see the names of any and all...more