Members of the U.S. Congress were out this week for their Independence Day break, but they are scheduled to return during the week beginning July 11, 2022, when they will begin a busy three-week legislative period leading up...more
NLRB GC Provides Update on Recent Remedies. -
Remember back in September 2021 when the Buzz reported on National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo’s memorandum instructing regional directors to...more
Biden Administration Releases Regulatory Plans -
Maybe someone in the White House just read the Buzz’s Summer Forecast, because on June 21, 2022, the Biden administration released its Spring 2022 Unified Agenda of...more
Last week, in part one of our two-part Summer Forecast of labor and employment-related legislative and agency developments, the Buzz took a look at the U.S. Congress and what our legislators might have in store for employers...more
6/13/2022
/ Blacklist ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Legislative Agendas ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
OSHA ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
USDA ,
Wage and Hour
Summer Forecast: Part I. -
The Memorial Day holiday and the unofficial start of summer is a good time to take a look at what our elected (and unelected) policymakers in Washington, D.C., will be working on during the...more
Contractor Watchdog Releases Audit List. Late last week, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) released its new Corporate Scheduling Announcement List (CSAL) for federal contractors. According to OFCCP,...more
5/31/2022
/ Audits ,
Congressional Committees ,
Construction Industry ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
CSALs ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Heat Exposure ,
Infectious Diseases ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Workplace Violence
DOL Appeals Reinstatement of Independent Contractor Rule. Late last week, the administration filed its notice of appeal of the recent decision by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas to reinstate the...more
EEOC, DOJ Issue Guidance on AI in the Workplace. -
On May 12, 2022, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) each issued guidance documents addressing potential...more
5/16/2022
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Blacklist ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Labor Law Violations ,
New Guidance ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
NLRB GC Pushes for Card Checks, Limits on Employer Speech. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo filed a brief in a case asking the Board to make dramatic changes to federal labor law. The...more
4/25/2022
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
EEO-1 ,
Emergency Rule ,
Employee Rights ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Filing Deadlines ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
OSHA ,
Public Comment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unions
KBJ Makes History. On April 7, 2022, the U.S. Senate confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Jackson was confirmed by a vote of 53–47, with Republicans...more
This week, President Biden released his budget for fiscal year (FY) 2023, which begins on October 1, 2022. As the Buzz has written many times in the past, because the U.S. Congress has the “power of the purse” and is solely...more
4/4/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Corporate Taxes ,
Federal Budget ,
Federal Contractors ,
NPRM ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Retirement Plan ,
SECURE Act ,
Tax Reform
The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary held hearings this week on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Republican senators focused on Judge...more
3/28/2022
/ Arbitration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Federal Contractors ,
Hairstyle Discrimination ,
Health Care Providers ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Presidential Nominations ,
SCOTUS ,
Senate Confirmation Hearings ,
Workplace Safety
Trump-Era Independent Contractor Rule Reinstated. In a decision issued on March 15, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas reinstated the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) rule, “Independent Contractor...more
3/21/2022
/ Caregivers ,
Davis-Bacon Act ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Independent Contractors ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
OFCCP ,
Prevailing Wages ,
Sexual Assault ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
Finally: Congress Passes 2022 Government Funding Legislation. This week, Congress passed a $1.5 trillion omnibus funding bill (H.R. 2471), setting the table to fully fund the federal government for the remainder of fiscal...more
President Joe Biden delivered his first State of the Union Address this week. Though it was easy to miss in the speech, workplace policy observers may have noticed that the president briefly pushed for passage of the Paycheck...more
3/7/2022
/ Arbitration ,
Biden Administration ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
H-1B ,
Hairstyle Discrimination ,
L-1 Visas ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Minimum Wage ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Proposed Legislation ,
SCOTUS ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State of the Union ,
Wage and Hour
Government Avoids Shutdown. Perhaps already missing professional football, the U.S. Congress this week punted on federal government funding. Funding for the government was set to expire at 11:59 p.m. on February 18, 2022, but...more
2/22/2022
/ Arbitration ,
Biden Administration ,
Continuing Resolution ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) ,
Government Shutdown ,
NLRB ,
NPRM ,
OSHA ,
Paid Leave ,
Pending Legislation ,
Policy Memorandums ,
SCOTUS ,
Sexual Assault ,
Trucking Industry
In a rare moment of bipartisanship - particularly in the labor and employment policy sphere - the U.S. Congress this week passed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021. The bill...more
2/14/2022
/ Arbitration ,
Biden Administration ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Executive Orders ,
Logistics ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Sexual Assault ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Trucking Industry ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
PLAs on the Way? President Joe Biden signed an executive order today requiring project labor agreements (PLAs) for all federal construction projects costing more than $35 million. Although the text of the order is not...more
2/7/2022
/ America Competes Act ,
Biden Administration ,
Construction Project ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
NLRB ,
Project Labor Agreements ,
Public Projects ,
Ruth Bader Ginsberg ,
Union Organizers ,
Unions
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has notified President Joe Biden of his intention to retire at the end of the Court’s current term. Interestingly, Justice Breyer indicated that his retirement would perhaps be conditioned...more
Nuclear Fallout. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer deployed the so-called “nuclear option” this week by seeking to eliminate the legislative filibuster as applied to election reform legislation. (This procedure is...more
1/24/2022
/ American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Federal Contractors ,
Filibuster ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
PBGC ,
Pensions ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Union Membership ,
Unions
SCOTUS Halts OSHA’s Vax-or-Test ETS (but Greenlights CMS Rule). On January 13, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States stayed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) COVID-19 vaccination-or-testing...more
1/17/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employer Mandates ,
Filibuster ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Health Insurance ,
Hiring & Firing ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Reimbursements ,
SCOTUS ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Voting Rights
With 2022 underway, set forth below are the major labor and employment policy issues that the Buzz is keeping an eye on as we begin a new (midterm election) year.
COVID-19 Vaccine Requirements. Today the Supreme Court of...more
1/10/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Commuting ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Mandates ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Infectious Diseases ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
Oral Argument ,
OSHA ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Relief Measures ,
SCOTUS ,
Severe Weather ,
Union Organizers ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
Build Back Better...in 2022? Over the last several weeks, the Buzz has been monitoring congressional Democrats’ efforts to pass the Build Back Better Act, a $1.7 trillion social-spending package containing, among other...more
Federal Contractor Vax Requirement Blocked.
On December 7, 2021, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia preliminarily enjoined President Joe Biden’s Executive Order (EO) 14042 (requiring...more
12/13/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Mandates ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Temporary Regulations ,
Vaccinations
Congress: Always in Crisis Mode. The U.S. Congress returned this week for a three-week sprint to the end of the legislative year. With so much on its plate, it is quite possible that Congress will be working up to and around...more
12/6/2021
/ Budget Reconciliation ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Debt Ceiling ,
Federal Budget ,
Federal Contractors ,
Government Shutdown ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Members of Congress ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Vaccinations