A landmark law giving drivers of app-based transportation companies, such as Uber and Lyft, the right to collectively bargain is not preempted by the National Labor Relations Act, a three-member panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. U.S. Chamber of Commerce v. City of Seattle, No. 17-35640 (9th Cir. May 11, 2018). … Continue Reading
New NLRB Chairman John Ring has stated that the Board intends to use rulemaking to create a new joint employer standard. The statement was in response to a May 29 letter from Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Bernie Sanders that harshly questioned whether the agency planned to use rulemaking to create a new … Continue Reading
On June 6, NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb, the NLRB’s chief prosecutor, issued a detailed, 20-page Memorandum to the NLRB Regional Offices entitled “Guidance on Handbook Rules Post-Boeing.” (As General Counsel, Robb decides which unfair labor practice charges filed in the various NLRB regional offices should be pursued. Through his memorandum, GC Robb has instructed … Continue Reading
The National Labor Relations Board has begun the process to consider rulemaking to establish a standard for determining joint employer status under the National Labor Relations Act, according to the Board’s filing in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The current standard is set forth in Browning-Ferris Industries, 362 NLRB No. 186 … Continue Reading
Class action waivers in employment arbitration agreements do not violate federal law, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a much-anticipated decision in three critical cases. Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, No. 16-285; Ernst & Young LLP et al. v. Morris et al., No. 16-300; National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc., et … Continue Reading
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has refused to enforce the NLRB’s order finding that an employee’s discharge violated the National Labor Relations Act because the Board did not satisfy the Supreme Court’s two-prong Jefferson Standard test for determining whether an employee’s disparaging statements to third parties about his employer … Continue Reading
Jackson Lewis, which has represented management before the National Labor Relations Board for 60 years, has filed its comments suggesting several important changes to the NLRB’s far-reaching 2014 election rule amendments. In December 2017, the Board asked the public to submit comments on the efficacy of its 2014 election rule amendments, expressly asking if … Continue Reading
A bargaining order is an extreme form of relief and should not be issued without careful consideration of whether changed circumstances render such an order inappropriate, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, has explained, remanding an unfair labor practice case to the Board. Novelis Corp. v. NLRB, 2018 U.S. … Continue Reading
John Ring, a management labor attorney, has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to a seat on the National Labor Relations Board, filling the NLRB’s only remaining vacancy. Ring was confirmed by a 50-48 vote. The Board now has a full complement of five members — three Republicans and two Democrats. The Board is expected … Continue Reading
The U.S. has more than 6,000 charter schools. They are authorized in almost every state. While state laws vary, their purpose is the same: to permit alternatives to traditional public schools, unbound by local school districts or district-wide collective bargaining agreements that can stifle innovation. These laws frame charters as public schools, subject to the … Continue Reading
According to an April 9, 2018, press release by the office of United States Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), John Ring, a management labor attorney, is expected to be confirmed by the Senate this week to serve as a member of the National Labor Relations Board. Alexander said: America’s workers will benefit from . . . … Continue Reading
Floor consideration of the nomination of Republican John Ring to be a member of the National Labor Relations Board is scheduled to take place in the Senate on April 9. Ring is expected to be confirmed by the Republican-majority Senate. If he is confirmed, the NLRB will have a 3-to-2 Republican majority. (For more on … Continue Reading
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee has confirmed Republican John Ring to the National Labor Relations Board by a 12-11 vote. The next step is a vote by the full Senate. The Board is currently composed of two Democratic and two Republican appointees. If Ring is confirmed by the full Senate, the … Continue Reading
The National Labor Relations Board has held that an employee lost the protection of the National Labor Relations Act when he improperly accessed a secure area of the employer’s hotel, even though he did so in order to engage in otherwise protected concerted activity. KHRG Employer, LLC, 366 NLRB No. 22 (Feb. 28, 2018). The … Continue Reading
In response to new National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Peter Robb’s proposed changes to case processing and regional office structure, two groups of senior managers and organizations representing the Board’s front-line staff deemed Robb’s ideas an “existential threat” aimed to destroy the NLRB from the inside. A group of NLRB associate regional directors indicated … Continue Reading
The drama involving the National Labor Relations Board’s precedent-busting 2015 joint employer decision continues. Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc., 362 NLRB No. 186 (2015), dramatically changed the playing field for employers who rely on nontraditional workforces. The NLRB transformed its prior joint employment standard in Browning-Ferris into a two-part test that permits a finding of … Continue Reading
The song “Changes,” written by Phil Ochs, provides an opportune prism to examine the arguably cataclysmic changes implemented and portended by the new employer-friendly majority at the NLRB at the end of 2017 and expected in 2018. Sing along, enjoy the lilt. Don’t cry o’er case law that’s spilt. Come sit by my … Continue Reading
In a surprising reversal, the NLRB on February 26, 2018, vacated its decision in Hy-Brand Industrial Contractors, Ltd., 365 NLRB No. 156 (2017), and restored the Board’s union-friendly joint employer test set forth in Browning-Ferris Industries, 362 NLRB No. 186 (2015) which Hy-Brand had overruled. The Board’s latest reversal came about as a result of … Continue Reading
National Labor Relations Board Administrative Law Judge Arthur J. Amchan had ruled in Velox Express, Inc. that misclassification of employees as independent contractors violates Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act. 2017 NLRB LEXIS 486 (Sept. 25, 2017). Now the case is before the NLRB, and the Board has invited interested parties to file … Continue Reading
The National Labor Relations Board has reaffirmed it will apply a “potential-disenfranchisement” test, not an “actual-disenfranchisement” test, in determining whether employees were affected by a late opening of the polls at an NLRB-conducted election. Bronx Lobster Place LLC, Case 02-RC-191753 (Feb. 2, 2018) (unpublished). The employer had lost the election 14-12; there was one challenged … Continue Reading
The Board overturned Browning-Ferris Industries, 362 NLRB No. 186 (2015), in Hy-Brand Industrial Contractors, Ltd., 365 NLRB No. 156 (Dec. 14, 2017), and returned to the more employer-friendly principles governing joint-employer status that existed prior to that decision. Now, however, the five individual Charging Parties in Hy-Brand have filed with the Board a Motion for … Continue Reading
NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb’s reported comments on a January 11, 2018, conference call about his proposed changes to how the NLRB operates has stoked resistance from NLRB career staff and others. Robb reportedly plans to centralize the decision-making process about which unfair labor practice cases his office will pursue and reduce the authority of … Continue Reading
The National Labor Relations Board has restored the right of unionized employers to implement changes that are consistent with past practice (as long as the change does not materially vary in kind or degree from past changes), even if that practice developed under a management rights clause in a collective bargaining agreement that has expired, … Continue Reading
Despite the National Labor Relations Board’s “quickie election” rule, the percentage of unionized workers in the private sector remained essentially stable 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. Only 6.5 percent of private-sector workers were in unions in 2017, an increase of 0.1 percent over the previous year. … Continue Reading
