Labor Relations / Unions

Lessons from LEAP 2011

05/03/2011

Last month, The HR Specialist hosted the 7th annual Labor & Employment Law Advanced Practices (LEAP) Symposium in Las Vegas. Here are a few nuggets of insight and advice from the more than 30 attorney speakers:

Leave contracts to the experts: Have attorney draft documents detailing benefits

05/02/2011

Make sure an attorney reviews any contracts dealing with employee benefits and the like. A good lawyer will make sure the agreement does what you want it to do and doesn’t have language that may need court interpretation.

The HR I.Q. Test: May ’11

05/02/2011

Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz …

Training not working? Time to try demotion

04/25/2011

Not every employee is suited to promotion—something that may not become clear until far into the process. That’s why smart employers set reasonable expectations for training success and remain prepared to demote those who don’t make the cut.

NLRB presses first case involving Twitter posts

04/22/2011

The National Labor Relations Board last month said it planned to file a complaint against media firm Thompson Reuters for reprimanding a reporter over a Twitter post that criticized management. The NLRB settled a similar case in February involving a worker fired for Facebook postings critical of her boss.

L.A. employee unions sue over 2010 furloughs

04/20/2011

The International Union of Operating Engineers and Local 721 of the Service Employees International Union are suing the city of Los Angeles in the wake of last summer’s mandatory furlough of thousands of municipal employees.

Covered by union agreement? Its terms govern all contracts

04/14/2011

Employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement can’t claim additional quasi-contractual rights, as the following case shows.

The labor law waiting to trip you up–even if you’re not unionized!

04/12/2011

Even if your employees don’t belong to a union, the National Labor Relations Act applies to you. For example, the National Labor Relations Board recently announced that a nonunionized employer will pay $900,000 to two fired employees to settle charges that it violated the NLRA. Here’s a compliance primer.

NLRB ruling revisited: Can employees really trash you on Facebook?

04/05/2011

Don’t read too much into the NLRB’s recent “Facebook rant” ruling. Despite much employer hand-wringing, the decision didn’t give employees a free pass on social media posts. They still don’t have license to defame, disparage or otherwise trash their company, management, product or co-workers. Here’s why.

The HR I.Q. Test: April ’11

04/04/2011