By Patrick Scully In another stunning and sweeping decision, The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) has overturned the “clear and unmistakable” waiver test and concluded that employers may make unilateral changes to terms and conditions of employment “covered” by an existing collective bargaining agreement. For decades, employers had negotiated lengthy “management rights clauses” […]
Category: Labor
NLRB Serves Up An Epic Ruling For Employers
By Patrick Scully In its first significant decision applying the Supreme Court’s holding in Epic Systems v. NLRB, 584 U.S. ____, 138 S.Ct. 1612 (2018), the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) ruled that a restaurant owner lawfully compelled its employees to sign a revised mandatory arbitration agreement. The employer, an operator of Latin-themed […]
NLRB Body Blow: Union’s Lobbying Not Chargeable To Nonmember Employees
By Patrick Scully The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) has ruled that unions cannot charge nonmember represented employees for union lobbying expenses. Under the Supreme Court’s decision in Communication Workers v. Beck, 487 U.S. 735 (1988), nonmember represented employees can only be charged “representational fees” in states that permit ‘union security’ (compelled payment […]
Best Practice Derailed by the Details
By James Korte The EEOC has suggested that a manager’s performance evaluation should include the manager’s compliance with Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws. More information. Keep in mind that such a grading system must be applied in a way that does not itself discriminate against employees based on their protected characteristics. In a recent District Court […]
Facebooking Misappropriated Employer Form Is Not Protected Activity
By Chance Hill On June 11, 2018, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) Division of Advice applied the Board’s new Boeing standard for assessing employer policies. The Division advised that an employer did not violate the NLRA when it discharged a pro-union employee who Facebooked a form that was “improperly taken” from a team leader’s […]
The DOL Can’t Always Get What It Wants
By: Lindsay Hesketh While investigating defendant La Piedad’s FLSA compliance, the Department of Labor subpoenaed, among other things, documents with the names and addresses of other businesses owned by defendant’s shareholders. La Piedad informed the DOL that it did not have responsive records. Rather than investigate that response, the DOL immediately moved for an order […]
No More Splitting The Check For “Fair Share” Public-Sector Union Fees
By Alyssa Levy On June 27, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 41-year-old standard set in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education. Under Abood, when a union became the exclusive bargaining representative for a group of public employees, those public employees who chose not to belong to the union could still be required to […]