Labor Relations / Unions

NLRB changes solicitation rules to favor employers

07/19/2019

The National Labor Relations Board in June issued a decision that reversed a longstanding precedent by holding that employers may bar nonemployee union representatives or organizers from soliciting employees or promoting union membership in public areas within an employer’s facility.

Acosta resignation depletes an already shallow DOL bench

07/16/2019

The resignation of Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta means only half of the Department of Labor’s 14 positions that require Senate confirmation are occupied nearly two-and-a-half years into the Trump administration.

Trade union lawyers target age discrimination

06/20/2019

If you think labor unions only cause trouble for employers that find themselves on the wrong side of a picket line, think again. At least one union has become a driving force in a nationwide effort to ferret out age discrimination and file class-action lawsuits to make it stop.

Administration’s employment law agenda priorities revealed

05/29/2019

The Trump administration’s Spring Regulatory Agenda—essentially the government’s policy to-do list—lays out an array of goals affecting employment law.

Democrats mount effort to roll back anti-union initiatives

05/21/2019

A bill introduced by House Democrats in early May would outlaw state legislation that lets employees in unionized workplaces opt out of paying union dues.

NLRB: Bathroom chat isn’t ‘protected’ activity

05/14/2019

Even in nonunion workplaces, the National Labor Relations Act protects the rights of employees to engage in “concerted activity” that aims to benefit their job-related mutual aid or protection. But does that protection cover two workers who are overheard complaining about clients in a bathroom? Apparently not.

Provide breaks for nursing mothers: DOL punishing violators of ACA rule

05/14/2019

The Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide milk-expression breaks for new mothers and a private place that is not a bathroom. The U.S. Department of Labor is going after employers that don’t comply.

Court rules ministerial exception is limited

04/30/2019

The ministerial exception is based on the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition of state interference with religious practices. In a recent California state court case, a religious employer found the exception is limited.

No interference with obtaining employment if ex-employee already has job

04/10/2019

California’s Labor Code includes provisions to protect former employees from attempts to interfere with their ability to get a new job. Now a California appeals court has clarified that this only applies to efforts to obtain employment, and not to misrepresentation after the former employee has begun work.

DOL offers new online resource on workplace mental health issues

04/09/2019

The U.S. Department of Labor has launched an online Mental Health Toolkit, an online resource to provide tools employers can use to support employees dealing with mental health problems.