The Chartwell Chronicles: Employment Law
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#WorkforceWednesday: OSHA ETS on Hold, Retaliation Claims Increase, "Vaccination Ambassadors" - Employment Law This Week®
President Donald Trump last week removed National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne A. Wilcox and terminated the board’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo. The president then fired acting General Counsel Jessica Rutter on...more
On Friday, December 27, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in NLRB v. Starbucks Corp. vacated part of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) order on the grounds that it exceeded its authority in ordering...more
The National Labor Relations Board (Board) recently notched a win when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that a staffing company committed an unfair labor practice by terminating its employee when she...more
On December 27, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (“the Third Circuit” or “the court”) vacated a portion of an NLRB (“the Board”) order requiring Starbucks to compensate two allegedly wrongfully...more
On June 13, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB” or the “Board”) ability to seek injunctive relief during the pendency of an unfair labor practice proceeding. In a near...more
The boiling dispute over the unionization of baristas is heading to the Supreme Court. Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act authorizes federal courts to issue preliminary injunctions against employers that are...more
In a decision, Thryv, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 22, that was foreshadowed by recent invitations for briefs and prosecutorial conduct by NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo (see our prior posts here and here), the National Labor...more
On Friday, September 30, 2022, the NLRB reversed its earlier stance that Chelsea Befort was lawfully terminated for violating T-Mobile’s electronic communications policy. Ms. Befort sent mass emails to all 595 Customer...more
Non-union employers, this goes for you, too! An employee's use of bad language doesn't necessarily mean that the employer can take action against him. Even if the language arguably violates the employer's no-harassment...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, on March 18, 2022, applying de novo review, affirmed the district court’s dismissal of plaintiff Cesar Moreno’s wrongful termination claims against his former employer,...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
Court Affirms $4.26 Million Jury Award For “Self-Published Defamation” - Tilkey v. Allstate Ins. Co., 2020 WL 6268474 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020) - Allstate terminated Michael Tilkey, a 30-year employee who sold life...more
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) incorrectly found an employee invoked Weingarten rights and misapplied the Wright Line burden-shifting framework in finding an employee was unlawfully terminated, the federal appeals...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The third key trend from our 16th Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report involves governmental enforcement litigation, including an overview of priorities and filings by the EEOC, the U.S....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
Overruling 2014 precedent, see Babcock & Wilcox Construction, 361 NLRB 1127 (2014), the National Labor Relations Board (Board), last week in UPS, Inc. 369 NLRB No. 1 (Dec. 23, 2019), returned to the standard that applied from...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
Does an employer who genuinely believes that its workers are independent contractors and tells them that they are contractors and not employees, only to later find out that it was wrong, violate Section 8(a)(1) of the...more
Many employers purchase Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) to insure against loss as a result of employment claims. However, employers who do not carefully read their policies could be surprised by what is (or is...more
On August 29, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) refused to extend the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”) to create a new standalone violation under Section 8(a)(1). In Velox Express, Inc., 368 NLRB...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