The interplay between arbitration agreements and employment-based class actions has been the subject of extensive and often conflicting legal opinions for the last half-decade. While many hoped the issue would gain clarity and stability following last June’s Supreme Court ruling…
Labor Relations
Uber Drivers Lose Class Action Effort as Court Upholds Arbitration Requirement
It was just a matter of time. After the Supreme Court cleared the way for businesses to use class waivers with their employees and contractors with the Epic Systems ruling this past May, many observers expected that the decision would come back…
A Look Ahead at the Legal and Market Forces Affecting Employment
Almost two years into the new presidential administration, and with highly consequential and hotly debated mid-term elections around the corner, Littler’s Workforce Policy Institute’s Labor Day Report examines the state of the American workforce. The WPI offers this report to…
What the Missouri Right-to-Work Vote Means for Employers
n a sweeping victory for labor unions, Missouri voters overwhelmingly rejected a right-to-work law which sought to ban unions from requiring union fees as a condition of employment in Missouri. By capturing 67% of Tuesday’s vote, opponents of the measure…
A Look at How Brett Kavanaugh Could Shape Employment Law
Respect to the employment law bloggers, reporters, and others who have been trying to read the tea leaves to predict what Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s record as a jurist would foreshadow should he ascend to the U.S. Supreme Court. Discrimination claims…
Court Says Government Workers Can’t Be Forced to Pay Unions
There’s much hand-wringing and hand clapping today over the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that government workers can’t be forced to contribute to unions. In a 5-4 vote, the Court’s conservative majority ruled that laws requiring teachers, firefighters, police and other…
9 Ways the NLRB Is Making It Easier to Revise Your Handbook
If you’re new to the field, you’ll have to take our word on it, but HR-compliance professionals know that drafting a 100% compliant employee handbook got a lot tougher over the past several years. Let’s forget about paid-sick-leave laws, ban-the-box, and…
NLRB Issues New Guidance on How It Will Interpret Handbook Rules
Last week, NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb issued a lengthy 20-page memorandum (GC 18-04) providing detailed guidance regarding enforcement of “Handbook Rules Post-Boeing.” In The Boeing Co., 365 NLRB No. 154 (Dec. 14, 2017), the Board established a new standard governing…
NLRB Says It Will Craft a New Joint-Employer Rule
Editor’s note: In December, on a 3-2 vote the NLRB overturned an earlier decision setting a new standard for when two organizations will be found to be joint employers for the purposes of being held jointly liable for actions taken…
NLRB Throws Out Joint Employer Liability Decision, Leaving Browning-Ferris as the Rule
December’s joint employer decision by the NLRB which overturned an earlier case expanding joint employer liability was vacated today after an opinion by the inspector general that there was a conflict of interest. What this means is that the Board’s…
Roundup of Last Week’s NLRB Precedent Shattering Decisions
According to the NLRB website, the Board is “an independent federal agency vested with the power to safeguard employees’ rights to organize and to determine whether to have unions as their bargaining representative. The agency also acts to prevent and remedy…
NLRB Overturns Rules On Joint Employer and Neutral Policies
On 3-2 votes, the NLRB Republican majority today overturned two precedent setting cases. One involved the standard it adopted just two years ago to determine joint employer status. The second set aside a 13 year-old standard governing whether facially neutral…
HR In a Union Shop: Here’s What Your Supervisors Need to Know
The job of supervising employees in a unionized environment has its own unique set of rules and challenges. HR professionals need to provide supervisors with the knowledge and tools necessary to succeed in this special framework. This applies to both…
If You Hire In California, You Need to Know About These New Background Screening Rules
Several common background check practices became illegal in California last month. Recent additions to the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act address how employers use criminal histories in employment decisions. A laudable goal – reducing employment barriers for people with criminal…
If You Do Background Checks, Here’s What You Need to Know to Avoid a Lawsuit
“Double, double toil and trouble…” Although Shakespeare surely had something else in mind, it’s easy to see how these words could conjure images of compliance woes. The double compliance trouble you’re facing springs from two well-intentioned provisions that, nevertheless, complicate…
What Happens Online Can Get You In Trouble
Before social media, harassment, sexual or otherwise, was pretty much confined to office hours. Now, work and personal life have become so entangled that what happens at work no longer stays at work. “Our employees are connected 24/7,” says Jeffrey Miller,…
NLRB Nominees Expected to Change Board’s Direction
On Tuesday, President Trump nominated labor attorney William J. Emanuel to fill one of two vacancies to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Last week, he nominated Marvin E. Kaplan to fill the other vacancy. Currently, the Board is comprised…
Why You Need an Employee Handbook and What It Should Cover
A staff handbook (also known as a Policies and Procedures Manual) is something every company, regardless of size, should have. It is especially useful at onboarding, informing your new employees what is expected of them – and what they can…
Congress Weighing Comp Time In Lieu of OT
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, when a non-exempt employee works more than 40 hours in a workweek, that employee gets paid overtime at time-and-a-half the regular rate of pay. Under the FLSA, a private-sector employer cannot provide that employee…
Supreme Court Agrees to Decide On Employer Class Action Waivers
Picture a nerdier version of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, where persuasive legal briefs and sharp oral advocacy are like rear naked chokes and “ground and pound.” The fight card In one corner, we have the Federal Arbitration Act. Among other things,…