Management Memo

As the 40th anniversary of the landmark Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) is noted, an article by Allen B. Roberts featured in the Winter 2014 Benefits Law Journal observes that participating employees and contributing employers – as the primary stakeholders in the fortunes of multiemployer defined benefit pension plans – may not be among the celebrants. Employees who should benefit from retirement contributions and the employers who fund the payments are encountering a world different from that anticipated with the passage of ERISA. Increasingly, employers ...

On January 5, 2015, less than one month after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) voted to adopt a Final Rule to amend its rules and procedures for representation elections, a lawsuit has been filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, asserting that the Board exceeded its authority under the National Labor Relations Act (Act) when it amended its rules for votes on union representation and that the new rule in unconstitutional and violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the US Constitution.

The suit was filed by the Chamber of Commerce of the United ...

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 ...

On December 19, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board published a public notice stating that the NLRB General Counsel has issued 13 unfair labor practice complaints against McDonald’s USA, LLC, and McDonald’s franchisees alleging that McDonald’s and the franchisees are joint-employers, and as such, are jointly  responsible for alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act. What’s at stake in these cases is not only shared responsibility for these alleged violations of the Act, but possibly also shared responsibility in collective bargaining should those ...

In our new Act Now Advisory, “NLRB Adopts Expedited Election Rules, Effective April 15, 2015,” we report on the National Labor Relations Board’s new rules for representation elections. These rules will substantially shorten the time between the point when a union files a petition for a vote and the timing of the vote, severely limit the right of employers to litigate important issues before an election is held, and are expected to result in more union wins in representation votes. We include steps that employers may want to consider taking in advance of April 2015, in order to ...

Updated, 12/12/14 — In its Purple Communications, Inc., decision, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) has ruled that “employee use of email for statutorily protected communications on nonworking time must presumptively be permitted” by employers that provide employees with access to email at work.  While the majority in Purple Communications characterized the decision as “carefully limited,” in reality, it appears to be a major game changer.  This decision applies to all employers, not only those that have union-represented employees ...

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 ...

Our colleague Stuart Gerson of Epstein Becker Green posted “DC Circuit Stays Halbig Action Pending SCOTUS Review of King, Upholds Accommodation for Contraceptive Coverage” on the Health Law Advisor blog. Following is the full text:

Only last week, we informed you of the Supreme Court’s somewhat surprising grant of cert. in the Fourth Circuit case of King v. Burwell, in which the court of appeals had upheld the government’s view that the Affordable Care Act makes federal premium tax credits available to taxpayers in all states, even where the federal government, not the ...

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 ...

By Stuart M. Gerson

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 ...