Labor
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November 06, 2024
Amazon Calls For Halt To NLRB Delivery Drivers Proceeding
Amazon urged a California federal judge to pause a National Labor Relations Board case alleging the e-commerce giant jointly employed its former contractor's Teamster-represented drivers, raising now-familiar claims that removal protections for agency officials violate the U.S. Constitution.
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November 06, 2024
Mass. Voters Back Gig Driver Unions, Setting Up Possible Suit
Massachusetts voters on Tuesday handed Uber and Lyft drivers a novel route to unionization, likely setting up a legal challenge to the measure that experts predict will face an uphill climb.
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November 05, 2024
Trump's Second Term Poses Range Of Outcomes For NLRB
Donald Trump's projected return to the White House is poised to have a major effect on the National Labor Relations Board, with the potential for a dramatic reversal of the last four years of pro-union policy.
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November 05, 2024
An Early Look At Trump's Supreme Court Shortlist
With former President Donald Trump projected to win the 2024 presidential election and the Republicans' success in securing the U.S. Senate majority, Trump may now get the chance to appoint two more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, cementing the court's conservative tilt for decades to come.
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November 05, 2024
GOP's Senate Win Hands Future Of The Judiciary To Trump
Republicans were projected to take back the White House and Senate and possibly the House early Wednesday, putting the GOP in position to back Donald Trump's agenda and his slate of young, conservative judicial nominees.
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November 05, 2024
The Firms With An Inside Track To A New Trump Admin
Law firms that have represented Donald Trump and the Republican Party on everything from personal legal woes to election-related lawsuits could see the risks of that work pay dividends as Trump is projected to secure a second term in office.
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November 05, 2024
Wage Ballot Measures See Mixed Results In 4 States
Voters on Tuesday approved statewide ballot measures that will raise the minimum wage and establish paid sick leave while rejecting those that would impact the tipped subminimum wage.
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November 05, 2024
Cannabis And Psychedelic Reform Bids Fail In Multiple States
Efforts to liberalize cannabis and psychedelic laws via ballot initiatives met with defeat in multiple states on Election Day, dealing a blow to reformers of drug policies.
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November 05, 2024
Mich. Unemployment Claimants, UAW Seek Class Certification
The United Auto Workers union and Michigan residents urged a federal judge Monday to certify a class of people who say the state suspended their unemployment payments without proper notice, a practice the claimants say violates a seven-year-old agreement with the state's unemployment insurance agency.
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November 05, 2024
Trader Joe's Wine Shop Closure Was Legal, NLRB Judge Says
Trader Joe's did not violate federal labor law by shuttering its Manhattan wine shop where union organizing was bubbling up, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Tuesday, saying agency prosecutors hadn't shown the grocery chain closed the store because of organizing efforts.
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November 05, 2024
NLRB Dings Vermont Software Co. Over 4 Workers' Firings
A Vermont software development company violated federal labor law by firing a worker who created a salary spreadsheet and three workers who supported him, the National Labor Relations Board ruled Tuesday, upholding an agency judge's decision.
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November 05, 2024
NLRB Judge Orders 3rd Vote At Ala. Amazon Warehouse
Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama are poised to vote for a third time on whether to unionize after a National Labor Relations Board judge on Tuesday found the company interfered with the last vote by vilifying workers' prospective union and confiscating union flyers.
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November 05, 2024
Apple Unlawfully Interrogated Worker, CWA Tells 5th Circ.
The National Labor Relations Board correctly found that Apple unlawfully interrogated a worker at a unionizing New York City store, the Communications Workers of America told the Fifth Circuit, saying the appellate court's decades-old test for determining whether there was coercive interrogation would yield the same result.
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November 05, 2024
Boeing Machinists Ratify New Contract, Ending Strike
A majority of 33,000 Boeing employees represented by the Machinists union voted Monday to ratify a new labor contract that includes a 38% wage increase over four years, ending a nearly two-month strike that hampered Boeing's production and cash flow.
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November 05, 2024
UFCW Members' Claims Against Delegate System Are Nixed
Two members of the United Food and Commercial Workers don't have standing to challenge the union's system of selecting convention delegates, a D.C. federal judge ruled, finding the plaintiffs couldn't show how they were harmed by the method for apportioning delegates by union local.
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November 05, 2024
AFL-CIO Backs NLRB In 5th Circ. Constitutional Challenge
The AFL-CIO and one of its member unions have asked the Fifth Circuit to undo a trio of injunctions that blocked National Labor Relations Board cases from proceeding on constitutional grounds, saying the injunctions "perpetuate a much graver constitutional harm than they claim to remedy."
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November 05, 2024
Waste Co. Agrees To Settle Union Pension Withdrawal Suit
A municipal waste company has agreed to resolve a Teamsters pension fund's lawsuit alleging that the company owes over $7.5 million to cover a predecessor's unpaid contributions, a New York federal judge said Tuesday.
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November 05, 2024
On The Ground: How Attorneys Safeguarded The Election
Attorneys worked tirelessly Tuesday to support citizens and election workers on the final day of voting in one of history's most contentious presidential contests.
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November 04, 2024
New Panel Not Needed In NLRB Row, Exxon Tells 5th Circ.
A Fifth Circuit panel questioned ExxonMobil's assertion that it could keep the same National Labor Relations Board panel makeup besides a board member flagged for conflict of interest, telling Exxon there was "good reason" for a completely new panel during oral arguments Monday.
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November 04, 2024
NLRB Orders Diner To Read Notice About Breaking Labor Law
An '80s-themed restaurant in Houston must read a notice out loud to workers after illegally terminating employees who went on strike, the National Labor Relations Board determined Monday, upholding an agency judge's unfair labor practice findings.
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November 04, 2024
Starbucks Fights NLRB's View On High Court Injunction Order
The National Labor Relations Board isn't considering a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on what standards courts must apply to injunction requests under federal labor law, Starbucks argued to a Michigan federal judge, challenging the agency's bid to make the court order the company to reinstate a fired union backer.
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November 04, 2024
Grindr Return-To-Work Policy Was Retaliatory, NLRB Attys Say
Grindr retaliated against its unionizing employees by giving them two weeks to either commit to returning to the office or resign, the National Labor Relations Board's Los Angeles office said in a new complaint against the gay dating app operator, saying 83 people lost their jobs as a result.
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November 04, 2024
NLRB Won't Redo Back Pay Precedent In Steakhouse Case
The National Labor Relations Board has upheld a back pay order against a Manhattan steakhouse that fired 36 strikers a decade ago, but shot down board prosecutors' request to use the case to shift precedent on back pay calculations.
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November 04, 2024
Starbucks' Payroll Benefit Rollout Is Illegal, NLRB Judge Says
Starbucks violated federal labor law by excluding unionized stores from a new benefit in four states under which it paid workers at nonunion stores weekly instead of biweekly, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled, finding the coffee chain couldn't excuse its actions by promising to bargain in good faith.
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November 04, 2024
Walgreens To Pay $100M In Suit Alleging Inflated Drug Prices
Walgreens has agreed to hand over $100 million to settle claims from consumers and unions that it unlawfully overcharged insured consumers for prescription drugs while allowing members of its cost savings club to pay less, according to an Illinois federal court filing.
Expert Analysis
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Cannabis Labor Peace Laws Lay Fertile Ground For Unions
State legislatures are increasingly passing cannabis laws that encourage or even mandate labor peace agreements as a condition for licensure, and though open questions remain about the constitutionality of such statutes, unionization efforts are unlikely to slow down, says Peter Murphy at Saul Ewing.
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Handbook Hot Topics: Attendance Policies
Employee attendance problems are among the most common reasons for disciplinary action and discharge, which is why a clear policy neatly laid out in an employee handbook is necessary to articulate expectations for workers and support an employer's position should any attendance-related disputes arise, says Kara Shea at Butler Snow.
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Religious Institution Unionization Risks Post-NLRB Decision
A recent National Labor Relations Board decision granted Saint Leo University religious exemption from the National Labor Relations Act, potentially setting a new standard for other religious educational institutions, which must identify unionization risks and create plans to address them, say Terry Potter and Quinn Stigers at Husch Blackwell.
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Prepare Now To Comply With NJ Temp Worker Law
New Jersey temporary staffing firms and their clients must prepare now for the time-consuming compliance requirements created by the controversial new Temporary Laborers' Bill of Rights, or face steep penalties when the law's strict wage, benefit and record-keeping rules go live in May and August, say attorneys at Duane Morris.
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Protecting Workplace Privacy In The New Age Of Social Media
The rise of platforms like TikTok and BeReal, that incentivize users to share workplace content, merits reminding employers that their social media policies should protect both company and employee private information, while accounting for enforceability issues, say Christina Wabiszewski and Kimberly Henrickson at Foley & Lardner.
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Water Cooler Talk: Quiet Quitting Insights From 'Seinfeld'
Tracey Diamond and Evan Gibbs at Troutman Pepper chat with Paradies Lagardere's Rebecca Silk about George Costanza's "quiet quitting" tendencies in "Seinfeld" and how such employees raise thorny productivity-monitoring issues for employers.
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Garmon Defense Finds New Relevance As NLRB Stays Active
With a more muscular National Labor Relations Board at work, employers should recall that they have access to a powerful yet underutilized defense to state law employment and tort claims established under the U.S. Supreme Court decision in San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, say Alex Meier and Cary Reid Burke at Seyfarth.
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Eye On Compliance: Cross-State Noncompete Agreements
The Federal Trade Commission's recent proposal to limit the application of worker noncompete agreements is a timely reminder for prudent employers to reexamine their current policies and practices around such covenants — especially businesses with operational footprints spanning more than one state, says Jeremy Stephenson at Wilson Elser.
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Conducting Employee Investigations That Hold Up In Court
A recent Maryland federal court decision, which held that Elite Protective Services failed to provide a worker under internal investigation with protections required by his collective bargaining agreement, highlights important steps employers should take to ensure the conclusions of internal reviews will withstand judicial scrutiny, say attorneys at Venable.
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Memo Shows NLRB Intends To Protect Race Talk At Work
A newly released memo from the National Labor Relations Board advising that discussions of racism at work count as protected concerted activity should alert employers that worker retaliation claims may now face serious scrutiny not only from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but also the NLRB, says Mark Fijman at Phelps Dunbar.
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Cannabis Co. Considerations For Handling A Union Campaign
As employees in Connecticut and across the country increasingly unionize, cannabis employers must understand the meaning of neutrality and the provisions of labor peace agreements to steer clear of possible unfair labor charges, say attorneys at Shipman & Goodwin.
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Handling Severance Pact Language After NLRB Decision
Following the National Labor Relations Board’s recent ruling that severance agreements with broad confidentiality or nondisparagement provisions violate federal labor law, employers may want to consider whether such terms must be stripped from agreements altogether, or if there may be a middle-ground approach, says Daniel Pasternak at Squire Patton.
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Eye On Compliance: Service Animal Accommodations
A Michigan federal court's recent ruling in Bennett v. Hurley Medical Center provides guidance on when employee service animals must be permitted in the workplace — a question otherwise lacking clarity under the Americans with Disabilities Act that has emerged as people return to the office post-pandemic, says Lauren Stadler at Wilson Elser.