As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, most businesses were faced with making difficult decisions regarding their workforce. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that, in April, the unemployment rate rose to 14.7 percent totaling 23.1 million unemployed. While the number of new unemployment claims appears to be dropping, for the week ending May 2, 2020, […]
In 2015, the NLRB adopted a more relaxed standard for determining when an entity could be considered a joint employer and thus liable for alleged workplace wrongs along with a direct employer. Of course the result of the loosening of the reins meant an increase in the number of defendants listed on complaints as potentially […]
Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (the Act) gives employees the right to engage in “concerted activities” for “mutual aid or protection.” In general, “concerted activities” are activities or conduct by employees with or on the authority of other employees. This includes activities or conduct by one employee designed to initiate or induce […]
The winter edition of Snell & Wilmer’s Under Construction newsletter is out now! This issue addresses: Employees’ Use of Social Media to Complain About Working; Tips for Mediation of the Toughest Construction Disputes; Overview of the ConsensusDocs® 900 Public-Private Partnership (P3) Agreement and General Conditions; The Registrar of Contractors and the Residential Contractors’ Recovery Fund: […]
Overruling 2014 precedent, see Babcock & Wilcox Construction, 361 NLRB 1127 (2014), the National Labor Relations Board (Board), last week in UPS, Inc. 369 NLRB No. 1 (Dec. 23, 2019), returned to the standard that applied from 1984 to 2014 for deferral of alleged unlawful discharges and/or disciplinary action against employees to contractual grievance/arbitration procedures. See Spielberg Mfg.Co., 112 […]
Overruling Obama-era precedent, on December 17 the National Labor Relations Board (Board) published two decisions that will significantly affect all employers. For more information, click here.
Employers often confront the question of whether employees can be disciplined for using social media, such as Facebook, to communicate with other employees about complaints regarding terms and conditions of employment. Frequently some of those communications are expressed in terms that are offensive and disparaging about the employer and/or specific supervisors. In deciding whether employees […]
In recent years, many private sector employers have adopted mandatory arbitration programs for employment disputes, which their employees are required to sign as a condition of employment. Main objectives of those programs are the expeditious resolution of employment disputes and the avoidance of protracted and expensive court litigation. Typically, mandatory employment arbitration programs list the […]
It is well established that, in general, employers, whose employees are represented by a union, commit unfair labor practices by making any material, substantial and significant change regarding most terms and conditions of employment affecting the unionized employees, without first providing the union notice and a meaningful opportunity to bargain about the change to agreement […]
Just as businesses were expressing cautious optimism over the interim replacement of Labor Secretary Acosta by veteran GOP operative and business ally Patrick Pizzella, on July 18, 2019 the President announced plans to nominate business attorney Eugene Scalia to fill the role. The son of former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and current attorney at […]