After a flurry of pro-employee National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) decisions, the Fifth Circuit gave employers a glimmer of hope, rejecting the Board’s recent rule issued in Tesla, Inc., 371 NLRB No. 131 (2022) that effectively put every employer’s appearance, dress code and uniform policy in jeopardy of violating Board law if it could be read to limit employees’ ability to wear union apparel or insignia in any way unless the employer is able to meet the high burden of demonstrating that “special circumstances” existed to justify the policy.
The Tesla, Inc ...
On December 21, 2022, NY Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the Warehouse Worker Protection Act (“the Act’), which will be effective February 19, 2023. As noted in Governor Hochul’s press release announcing the Act, a major driving force behind the legislation was organized labor, including the Teamsters and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
On August 29, 2022, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) issued a decision in Tesla, Inc. regarding dress code policies that further the Biden Board’s efforts to remake NLRB policy. This decision has big implications for employers that maintain appearance, dress code, and uniform policies. The Board’s decision now firmly establishes that any employer’s uniform or dress code policy is inherently unlawful if it can be read “in any way” to prohibit employees from wearing union insignia unless an employer can prove that its policy is justified by special circumstances. It is irrelevant whether the employer’s policy has ever been applied to prohibit union t-shirts or the employer actively permits union buttons or other insignia. Further, and critical to a broader understanding of the implications of this decision, it is also irrelevant whether the workplace is unionized or even being actively unionized.
Last week, as widely reported, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to Protect Workers from the COVID-19 (see full details in our Insight). Currently the subject of much pending litigation including a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and thus, for the time being, in limbo, the ETS is nonetheless a set of federal regulations that, unless overturned, applies to a large proportion of U.S. employers with 100 or more workers and requires those employers to either: (a) mandate that all ...
On the Workforce Bulletin blog, I recently co-authored “New York Hero Act Amendments Passed and Sent to Governor for Signature” with my colleagues .
Employers with union represented employees should pay special attention to the provisions of the HERO Act that mandate a role for labor unions in the Workplace Safety Committees provided for in the Act.
Following is an excerpt:
As we previously reported, on May 5, 2021, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Health and Essential Rights Act (the “HERO Act” or ...
As we have discussed in prior Advisories, the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (“Coronavirus” or “COVID-19”) public health emergency is raising important issues for employers addressing rapidly developing disruptions to the workplace and the lives of employees with mass school closures, workplace closings, the need to reduce staff and expenses, etc. Employers with unionized workforces must take certain additional considerations into account when developing and implementing response plans to the current crisis.
Under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA” or ...
We encourage our readers to visit Workforce Bulletin, the newest blog from our colleagues at Epstein Becker Green (EBG).
Workforce Bulletin will feature a range of cutting-edge issues—such as sexual harassment, diversity and inclusion, pay equity, artificial intelligence in the workplace, cybersecurity, and the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on human resources—that are of concern to employers across all industries. EBG's full announcement is here.
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(And if you haven't ...
Our colleague Steven Swirsky is featured on Employment Law This Week - DOL Proposes New Joint-Employer Rule speaking on the recent Department of Labor (DOL) ruling regarding joint-employers status under the Fair Labor Standards Act while the The National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) joint-employment rule proposed in September 2018 is still pending.
Watch the interview below.
Since earlier this year, reports have circulated that National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) General Counsel Peter Robb planned to introduce changes in its case handling processes and organizational structure that would move certain authority away from the Regional Directors and transfer substantive decision making authority to Washington. While the General Counsel denied the specifics, he acknowledged that as the Board was faced with a reduced case load and budgetary pressures, some changes would be necessary and appropriate. It now appears safe to ...
In its long awaited decision in Mark Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the United States Supreme Court clearly and unequivocally held that it is a violation of public employees’ First Amendment rights to require that they pay an “agency fee” to the union that is their collective bargaining representative, to cover their “fair share” of their union representative’s bargaining and contract enforcement expenses. The Janus decision overturns the Court’s own 1977 decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, which had found ...
On June 7, 2017, in RHCG Safety Corp. and Construction & General Building Laborers, Local 79, LIUNA, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) rejected an employer’s contention that “a text message cannot be found to constitute an unlawful interrogation” and found that a coercive text message, just like a coercive face-to-face meeting or a coercive phone call, could serve as evidence that the employer had unlawfully threatened or interrogated employees concerning their union support or activity in violation of the National Labor Relations Act ...
In yet another decision that exhibits the current Board’s overreaching and expansive view of its jurisdiction, the Board recently ruled that nurses who supervise and assign other hospital staff are not statutory supervisors.
A Position Expressly Created to be Supervisory is Not Supervisory, According to the Board
In 2016, Lakewood Health Center (“Lakewood”) restructured its staffing system and replaced charge nurses with a newly created position, Patient Care Coordinator (“PCC”). According to the uncontradicted testimony of Lakewood Vice-President of Patient ...
The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”), in its recent decision in Graymont PA, Inc., 364 NLRB No. 37 (June 29, 2016), has fired the latest salvo in its long running dispute with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit concerning the issue of what legal standard should be applied when a union claims that an employer has made a unilateral change in terms and conditions of employment during the term of a collective bargaining agreement and the employer claims that the union waived its right to bargain over the topic in question in a ...
Today, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a nationwide preliminary injunction halting the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) controversial new Persuader Rule and its new Advice Exemption Interpretation, previously discussed here and here. The Rule and Interpretation marked a dramatic change by requiring public financial disclosure reports concerning payments that employers make in connection with “indirect persuader activities” that were not reportable under the long standing rules, but that would, if the new rule were to take ...
Featured on Employment Law This Week: The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) finds the hiring of permanent replacements for strikers to be an unfair labor practice.
In a 2-1 decision that could benefit unions during contract negotiations, the NLRB found that a continuing care facility in California violated federal labor law when it hired permanent replacements after a series of intermittent strikes. While the NLRB and courts have long held that an employer’s motivation for hiring permanent replacements is irrelevant, in this case, the board held that if the hiring is ...
One of the top stories featured on Employment Law This Week: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has joined the National Labor Relations Board in finding that arbitration agreements containing class action waivers violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
At issue is a collective and class action by employees of Epic Systems about overtime pay. The company was seeking to dismiss the case based on a mandatory arbitration agreement that waived an employee’s right to participate in a collective or class action. Unlike the Fifth Circuit, the Seventh Circuit ...
A featured story on Employment Law This Week is the NLRB's crackdown on employers restricting the content of personal emails sent through the employer’s email system.
In 2014, the NLRB ruled that employees who have email through their employers can use that email to communicate about union-related issues. In a recent election at Blommer Chocolate Company, the union claimed that company email rules interfered with the voting process. Employees were allowed to use the company’s email system for personal emails, but were prohibited from expressing personal opinions in their ...
May 14th marked the one-month anniversary of the effective date of the NLRB’s Amended Representation Election Rules (“amended rules”). That day, the Regional Directors for NLRB Regions 2 (New York, NY), 22 (Newark, NJ), and 29 (Brooklyn, NY) discussed their offices’ experiences processing representation petitions filed since the amended rules took effect on April 14th.
With respect to the questions of how the amended rules are actually affecting representation petitions and elections, while one month may not be representative, the data to date does offer some ...
The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) unfair labor practice hearing against McDonald’s, USA, LLC (“McDonald’s) and numerous franchisees opened in New York City on Monday March 30, 2015, before Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) Lauren Esposito. (“ALJ”), a former NLRB field attorney and union lawyer. Also this week, the Service Employees International Union (“SEIU”) announced that it was investing an additional Fifteen Million Dollars in the Fight For Fifteen campaign, which seeks to organize fast food workers nationwide and that a series of ...
On March 18, 2015, NLRB General Counsel Richard F. Griffin, Jr. issued General Counsel Memorandum GC 15-04 containing extensive guidance as to the General Counsel’s views as to what types employer polices and rules, in handbooks and otherwise, will be considered by the NLRB investigators and regional offices to be lawful and which are likely to be found to unlawfully interfere with employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA” or the Act”).
This GC Memo is highly relevant to all employers in all industries that are under the jurisdiction of the National ...
New Union Rules and Rulings: Proactive Strategies for Employers Facing Today’s Aggressive National Labor Relations Board and New Expedited Representation Elections
April 14, 2015 – Hilton Westchester, Rye Brook, New York
May 7, 2015 – The L.A. Hotel Downtown, Los Angeles, California
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has adopted dramatic new rules and processes for union representation elections scheduled to take effect on April 14, 2015. The NLRB has also changed many of its standards concerning workplace rules, handbooks and policies affecting ALL EMPLOYERS ...
In a case emphasizing the importance of acting in good faith in the interactive process and how an employer can do it right, on February 13, 2015, the First Circuit denied the EEOC’s petition for a rehearing en banc of the court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit brought against Kohl’s Department Stores, Inc. by a diabetic former employee who claimed that her erratic working hours were exacerbating her condition. EEOC v. Kohl’s Dep’t Stores, Inc., 774 F.3d 127 (1st Cir. 2014), reh’g en banc denied (Feb. 13, 2015).
Pamela Manning, a former sales associate at Kohl’s, had type I ...
Very often OSHA complaints go hand in hand with union organizing campaigns and other concerted activity protected under the National Labor Relations Act, at union and nonunion operations.
Our colleague Valerie Butera has prepared a thoughtful analysis concerning OSHA’s revised recordkeeping and reporting requirements in retail: “What Do OSHA’s Revised Recordkeeping and Reporting Rules Really Mean for Retailers?”
Below is an excerpt of Valerie's tips for retail employers:
- Train your safety and human resource professionals and your managers on the new reporting ...
Regarding the Supreme Court’s Integrity Staffing Solutions v. Busk opinion, issued yesterday, our colleague Michael Kun at Epstein Becker Green has posted “Supreme Court Holds That Time Spent in Security Screening Is Not Compensable Time” on one of our sister blogs, Wage & Hour Defense.
Following is an excerpt:
In order to prevent employee theft, some employers require their employees to undergo security screenings before leaving the employers’ facilities. That is particularly so with employers involved in manufacturing and retail sales, who must be concerned with ...
WHEN: November 17, 2014
TIME: 2:00pm – 3:30pm EST
To register for this webinar, please click here.
Please join us for a complimentary webinar addressing the professional and business challenges encountered by health care providers dealing with Ebola and other infectious diseases. This webinar will offer a clinical overview as well as a review of the guidelines which offer protocols for addressing concerns over Ebola and similar diseases, the health regulatory and risk management issues providers might consider in developing a response strategy, and the resulting labor and ...
While by most accounts the current term of the Supreme Court is generally uninteresting, lacking anything that the popular media deem to be a blockbuster (the media’s choice being same-sex marriage or Affordable Care Act cases), the docket is heavily weighted towards labor and employment cases that potentially affect employers in all industries including retail, health care, financial services, hospitality, and manufacturing. In chronological order of argument they are as follows.
The Court already has heard argument in Integrity Staffing Solutions ...
Today, EBG client, National Grocers Association (“NGA”), filed a request to speak at the National Labor Relations Board’s public meeting, scheduled for April 10-11, 2014 regarding the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) on the “ambush election” representation procedures.
NGA is the national trade association representing retail and wholesale grocers that comprise the independent sector of the food distribution industry. NGA requested to speak on 4 key issues being contemplated by the NLRB:
- Timing of the Election. NGA opposes any ...
By Steven M. Swirsky, Adam C. Abrahms, Kara M. Maciel, and Casey M. Cosentino
As previously predicted by the Management Memo on August 1, 2013 and October 30, 2013, the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) issued a second Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) to amend its existing rules and regulations governing union elections procedures. If they look familiar when you see them, there is a good reason for that: you have seen them before.
As readers of the Management Memo are well aware, the NPRM is the latest development in the long saga of organized labor’s attempts ...
By Lisa M. Watanabe
On December 3, 2013, the Fifth Circuit issued its much anticipated decision overturning the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) controversial D.R. Horton, Inc. decision invalidating class action waivers and holding that requiring employees to sign such waivers violated employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”). As previously reported in our earlier Act Now Advisory, the NLRB’s January 3, 2012 decision held that home builder D.R. Horton, Inc. (“D.R. Horton”) unlawfully interfered with employees’ ...
On August 1st President Obama made a bold statement by appointing Richard Griffin to serve as the NLRB's General Counsel only three days after the former union lawyer vacated his unconstitutional recess appointment as a NLRB Board Member. The President statement by appointment made at least two things clear -
- The President wants an aggressive pro-labor General Counsel and NLRB, and
- The President values advancing the labor agenda over cooperation with the US Senate.
As we discussed here on July 30th the Senate confirmed a full Board for the first time in a decade as a result of a "deal" in ...
By: Adam C. Abrahms and Stephanie R. Carrington
Since California’s implementation of legislation setting minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios in 2004, the issue of nurse staffing has been slowly but surely creeping its way into other states’ legislation, attempts at federal legislation, and of course, into more union contracts.
When it comes to requirements for hospital staffing ratios, federal regulations provide only that hospitals participating in Medicare have “adequate numbers” of nurses and other personnel to provide nursing care. But some states have ...
Wal-Mart Stores has filed an interesting and unusual lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking injunctive relief to stop various activities conducted by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and its subsidiary “OUR Wal-Mart” (Organization United for Respect at Wal-Mart) in connection with their long-running efforts to organize the giant retailer’s employees. The complaint alleges that on numerous occasions in 2012 and 2013 demonstrators acting on behalf of the UFCW entered various Wal-Mart stores in California and disrupted store ...
In the past week media reports abound regarding a controversial allegedly "anti-union" statement made by a high level executive associated with the iconic snack cake Twinkies. As widely reported late last year, the original Twinkie maker, Hostess Brands, Inc., was forced to close, liquidate and lay off its entire unionized workforce, publicly blaming the recalcitrance of its unions for the company's downfall. However, these statements did not cause this most recent controversy. Rather, it was comments from an executive connected with Hostess Brands LLC, the newly formed ...
Epstein Becker Green is pleased to announce a webinar series for health care employers focusing on new and more aggressive tactics and strategies being employed by health care industry unions.
This three-part webinar series will provide an in-depth analysis and offer tools to assist employers who currently have union represented workforces as well as those who are or may be facing organizing efforts.
Part I - January 29, 2013 Aggressive Union Organizing Strategies: When Organizing Trumps Patient Care
Part II - February 28, 2013 Aggressive Union Negotiating Tactics
Part III - March ...
I co-authored an Act Now Advisory on the decision issued by NLRB Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Joel Biblowitz on January 8, 2013, finding that Quicken Loans’ agreements concerning proprietary and confidential information and non-disparagement unlawfully interfered with these unrepresented employees’ Section 7 rights to engage in concerted and protected activity. The ALJ decision adopts the expansive views of Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon and further expands the Board’s involvement in non-union workplaces.
Our colleagues Maxine Neuhauser and Amy E. Hatcher have written a client advisory: "Employer Posting Requirements Under New Jersey Law."
Following is an excerpt:
The list of employee notices that New Jersey employers are required to post has grown this year. Accordingly, as 2012 comes to a close, New Jersey employers should take some time to review the notification requirements relating to employees' workplace rights and responsibilities under state law.
Employers are mandated under New Jersey law to display official posters informing their employees of the law relating to ...
Blog Editors
Recent Updates
- Fifth Circuit Redresses NLRB’s Tesla Decision but the Board Remains Undaunted
- New York State Bans Workplace “Captive Audience” Meetings
- Federal Government Continues Initiatives to Limit Employer Opposition to Union Organizing
- NLRB Issues Final Rule on Joint-Employer Status, Answering a Major Question No One Asked
- NLRB Delivers Labor Day Gifts to Unions