In a recent case involving the application of the Board’s standard for the employee status of graduate students, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) denied a request for review of a Regional Director’s...more
Earlier this week, the National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued Memorandum GC 24-06 seeking to clarify the obligations imposed by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) on academic institutions...more
8/8/2024
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Department of Education ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Educational Institutions ,
FERPA ,
New Guidance ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Privacy Laws ,
Unions ,
Written Consent
Shortly after the New Year, on January 4, 2024, Space Exploration Technologies Corp.—or “SpaceX”—filed a complaint in the District Court for the Southern District of Texas alleging that an administrative complaint filed by...more
Following the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) highly-controversial decision in McLaren Macomb declaring most confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses in separation agreements to be unlawful, General Counsel...more
With Congress failing to make the organizing process easier for unions, the NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo is now asking the Board to require employers to recognize unions without a secret ballot election.
As...more
4/14/2022
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Rights ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Secret Ballot ,
Union Elections ,
Unions
As previously discussed, the New York City Council passed a law at the end of last year requiring certain hotels in the City to pay eligible employees weekly severance payments for up to 30 weeks.
There were swift legal...more
4/6/2022
/ Contracts Clause ,
Due Process ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Protection ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Hotels ,
Layoffs ,
Likelihood of Success ,
NLRA ,
Preemption ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Severance Pay ,
State Labor Laws
As we discussed here, members of the House Education and Labor Committee have been attempting to end-run the procedural hurdles that have prevented the Protect the Right to Organize Act (“PRO Act”) legislation from becoming...more
10/29/2021
/ Budget Reconciliation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
Legislative Agendas ,
NLRA ,
Penalties ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Unions
Yesterday, General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a very significant memorandum on the status of college athletes as “employees” under the National Labor Relations Act. Statutory Rights of Players at Academic Institutions...more
9/30/2021
/ College Athletes ,
Colleges ,
Compensation ,
Employee Definition ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Misclassification ,
NCAA ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Sports ,
Student Athletes
A split Board concluded this week that a union did not engage in unlawful secondary activity under the NLRA when it stationed a 12-foot-tall inflatable rat—known all too well by employers as “Scabby the Rat”—and two 8-foot...more
After being nominated by President Biden on February 17, 2021, Jennifer Abruzzo was sworn in as General Counsel of the NLRB yesterday by Chairman Lauren McFerran. Abruzzo will serve a four-year term as General Counsel,...more
As we reported here and here, there are several challenges to the authority of the Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, Peter Sung Ohr, given President Biden’s unprecedented move of terminating the...more
7/16/2021
/ Administrative Appointments ,
Appointments Clause ,
Biden Administration ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Unfair Labor Practices
As we enter the second year of the pandemic, it has become increasingly apparent the various vaccinations approved for safeguarding against COVID-19 are a key element to returning to normal business operations. Employers...more
The Coronavirus pandemic has spawned a lot of questions—and a lot of headaches—for employers, who within the past year have needed to adapt to rapidly changing health, regulatory, and technological landscapes. With the...more
In a recent decision by the NLRB, the Board upheld the lawfulness, in part, of an arbitration agreement that required employees to maintain the confidentiality of the arbitration proceedings, including the discovery process...more
After publishing the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking over a year ago, followed by tens of thousands of public comments and many months of anticipating the final rule, the NLRB announced today that it will publish a Notice of...more
Recently, adjunct professors at Elon University and Ithaca College won victories before the NLRB and an American Arbitration Association arbitrator, respectively, that further bolster the position that adjunct, or contingent,...more
2/26/2021
/ Adjunct Faculty ,
Bargaining Units ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Colleges ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Professors ,
Unions ,
Universities
The NLRB’s Division of Advice recently released a long-awaited Advice Memorandum (originally issued in February 2019, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Case 28-CA-229134 (Feb. 22, 2019)) concerning the validity of two workplace rules...more
12/2/2020
/ Boeing ,
Civility ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Government Investigations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Protected Activity ,
Reasonableness Factors ,
Section 7
On July 15, 2020, the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) Division of Advice published 16 Advice Memoranda addressing myriad questions posed by various Regional Offices.
While a majority of the Memoranda were drafted...more
7/22/2020
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Infectious Diseases ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Policy Memorandums ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Section 7 ,
Unfair Labor Practices
As we previously reported, the NLRB published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in September 2019 regarding the employee-status of student workers at private colleges and universities. Under the proposed rule, the NLRB...more
After a brief delay where the NLRB suspended all representation elections from March 19 through April 6, 2020, NLRB Regional Directors have since largely required elections to be held via mail ballot to curb the spread of...more
In late May, on the eve of the effective date of the NLRB’s sweeping changes to the election process, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that certain of the new rules were...more
As we previously suggested, the NLRB’s adoption of the Boeing standard for determining the lawfulness of employer’s workplace rules, policies and handbook provisions has provided significant fodder for interesting cases....more
6/1/2020
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Boeing ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Infectious Diseases ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Section 7
We have often reported about how an employer’s failure to adequately respond to an information request made by a union can lead to unfair labor practice charges and litigation. Sometimes a union makes an information request...more
As the NLRB continues to navigate the uncertainty in the work landscape during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it seems to have stayed largely on course, regularly issuing decisions touching on a number of important topics...more
Due to the sudden economic turbulence resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, employers have been exploring ways to temporarily reduce operating costs. Many employers are seeking alternatives to layoffs. Such alternatives may...more
4/22/2020
/ CARES Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employee Benefits ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Furloughs ,
Layoffs ,
NLRA ,
Pay Reductions ,
Reduction in Hours ,
Shared Work Program ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unemployment Insurance ,
Unions ,
WARN Act