On March 29, 2024, the Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) released a final rule amending the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (“OSH Act”), clarifying who can serve as an...more
For more than five decades, employers could cease deduction of dues at the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement as a legitimate economic weapon. It was only recently that, as part of the constant shifting of...more
On March 30, 2022, three judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overruled prior precedent allowing “implied” contracts to survive the expiration of a written agreement. The instant panel held, instead,...more
In Universal Health Services, Inc., 370 N.L.R.B. No. 118 (April 30, 2021), the Board dismissed a complaint alleging that an employer’s bargaining proposals seeking significant concessions violated the duty to bargain in good...more
5/10/2021
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Discipline ,
Duty to Bargain ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Unions
On January 14, 2021, the NLRB issued a decision in Asociacion de Empleados del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, 370 NLRB No. 71. The decision involved the issue of whether a term of employment contained in a collective...more
When an employee is disciplined and then claims the employer acted on account of union animus in violation of Section 8(a)(3) of the Act, evidence to support such a claim either can be proffered through direct evidence, such...more
12/16/2020
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Adverse Employment Action ,
Charging Party ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Failure to Investigate ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Unions ,
Wright Line Test
The pandemic has thrown a number of obstacles at employers and employees as everyone attempts to navigate a novel situation. On August 13, 2020, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) Division of Advice (“Advice”), the...more
8/18/2020
/ CARES Act ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Duty to Bargain ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Layoffs ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Popular ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Section 7 ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Unions ,
Workplace Safety
On May 21, 2020, the NLRB issued a decision in Altura Communication Solutions, LLC. The case asked the Board to consider whether a series of broad proposals made by the employer during collective bargaining amounted to bad...more
5/28/2020
/ Bad Faith ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Disability Benefits ,
Duty to Bargain ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Grievance Process ,
Labor Relations ,
Management Rights Clauses ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Unions
In its January 31, 2020 decision in Phillips 66, 369 NLRB No. 13 (January 31, 2020) the Board reversed a number of findings of unfair labor practices found by an Administrative Law Judge related to the employer’s conduct...more
2/15/2020
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Good Faith ,
NLRB ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
On Thursday, February 6, 2020 the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, also known as the “PRO Act”. The legislation passed mostly along party lines, would provide sweeping changes to...more
2/10/2020
/ Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
New Legislation ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Right to Work ,
Section 7 ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Unions
In the field of labor relations, there exist some rare occurrences, things that happen so seldom that it seems as if they are impossible. As we’ve previously discussed, one such “unicorn sighting” is the NLRB overturning an...more
In yet another end-of-2019 decision overruling significant NLRA precedent, the Board reverted to the less stringent Spielberg / Olin standard for determining whether to defer to arbitration decisions in the context of Section...more
1/3/2020
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Babcock & Wilcox Construction ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Contract Terms ,
Disciplinary Proceedings ,
Employment Contract ,
Filing Grievances ,
Grievance Process ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Unions ,
UPS ,
Wrongful Termination
Mid-December is always a time where one can expect significant decisions to issue from the NLRB. In recent years, we saw the Board, among other decisions, abandon the much criticized “micro unit” standard and the equally...more
12/17/2019
/ Bethlehem Steel ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Contract Negotiations ,
Dues Checkoff ,
Labor Relations ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Statutory Requirements ,
Union Dues ,
Union Security Clauses ,
Unions
As we near the end of the agency’s fiscal year on September 30, the NLRB is churning out many significant decisions. On September 10, the Board issued a sweeping decision concerning an issue that has divided the NLRB and D.C....more
On the eve of Independence Day, the NLRB, in a 3-1 decision (Member McFerran dissented), clarified the law concerning withdrawal and enunciated a new framework for determining whether a union has retained majority support at...more
7/8/2019
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Contract Terms ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Union Elections ,
Union Representatives ,
Unions ,
Withdrawal
Employers with union-represented employees also always have non-union employees, whether working in the office or at another worksite. Invariably, there are differences between the wages, benefits, and terms and conditions of...more
6/4/2019
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Holiday Pay ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Union Representatives ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
The NLRB currently is churning out cases and Advice Memoranda at a fairly regular pace. We recently discussed NLRB decisions addressing information requests, handbook statements, and confidential informants....more
Information requests in the realm of labor relations are simple in theory but can be complicated in practice. We have seen how the topics of information sought by a union can cause skirmishes, sometimes deliberately so. We...more
4/5/2019
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Business Conduct Standards ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Confidential Information ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Policies ,
Information Requests ,
NLRB ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
During the last decade, a number of NLRB decisions faulted employers for written policies that were considered to be overbroad in violation of the National Labor Relations Act. These rulings sprang largely from the NLRB’s...more
2/27/2019
/ Appeals ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Policies ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Section 7 ,
Union Representatives ,
Unions
An employer’s duty to provide information to the union representing its employees is a frequent of topic of interest to labor relations practitioners because it is very easy to violate the law. For example, an employer’s...more
On the eve of Chairman Miscimarra’s departure, the Board has been churning out decision after decision, many of them reversing precedents from the last 8 years.
Today, the NLRB, in Raytheon Network Centric Systems, 365...more
The NLRB suffered a setback this week when its interpretation of Weingarten rights was rebuffed by the D.C. Court of Appeals. This is the same court that recently declared the agency was acting more as an “advocate than...more
8/24/2017
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hospitals ,
NLRB ,
Nurse Practitioners ,
Peer Review ,
Union Representatives ,
Unions ,
Weingarten Rights
When bargaining over an agreement, it is common to hear union representatives ask “why do we need such elaborate language in an agreement? We are always reasonable.” To which, the company usually responds, “We think you’re...more
What would the holiday season be without a Christmas gift case? A perennial problem for labor relations personnel is whether the yearly Christmas turkey given to employees is something that an employer must bargain over...more
12/30/2016
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Duty to Bargain ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Holiday Gifts ,
Holidays ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Unions
So far, it has been a long quiet Summer with little NLRB activity, – with the exception of the recent ruling that temporary agency employees can be part of a bargaining unit with the principal employer’s employees, of course....more