Perspectives on Labor, Employment & OSHA

The National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) longstanding policy strongly favored manual representation elections. With the COVID-19 pandemic’s onset, the Board began permitting mail-ballot elections under the “extraordinary circumstances” exception to its manual ballot preference.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued a resource outlining potential liability under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) for employers who utilize algorithmic decision-making technologies to make employment decisions.

On May 11, the US Department of Health and Human Services ended its COVID-19 federal public health emergency declaration.

In another pro-employee decision, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) has held that the familiar Wright Line standard no longer governs cases involving employees disciplined for engaging in offensive or abusive conduct while participating in activities that Section 7 of the NLRA protects.

This has been a banner year for employee-friendly legislation in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

We’ve all been on notice for some time that the current General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board), as well as a majority of the Board itself, has an aggressively expansive view of employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or Act).

Megan Daily will present “What’s in a Contract and Why” at the DC Pro Bono Center’s Understanding the Fundamentals of Nonprofit Organizations seminar series on April 27, 2023.

On March 21, 2023, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed SB 1040 into law. The new law, which goes into effect on July 1, 2023, prohibits employers from using an employee’s social security number or any derivative thereof as the employee’s identification number.

On April 12, 2023, the Commonwealth of Virginia enacted a law that requires covered employers to provide eligible employees with unpaid organ donation leave. The law goes into effect on July 1, 2023.

Los Angeles retail businesses must now comply with a new ordinance that promotes predictable work hours for employees.

On March 22, 2023, National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued GC Memo 23-05 providing guidance on the recent decision in McLaren Macomb. Below are some of the notable points set forth in the Memorandum.

Yesterday, Illinois Governor Pritzker signed into law the “Paid Leave for All Workers Act,” which will allow most Illinois employees up to 40 hours of paid leave per year, for any purpose, starting on January 1, 2024. This will represent a sea change for many employers in the state.

Last year, in Naranjo v. Spectrum Security Services, Inc., 13 Cal.5th 93 (2022), the California Supreme Court held that an employer’s failure to timely pay premium pay for meal and rest break violations could subject the employer to waiting time and wage statement penalties.

California Assembly Bill 1228 (A.B.1228), otherwise known as the Fast-Food Franchisor Responsibility Act, was introduced on February 16, 2023.

Similar to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, California law requires an employer to pay overtime based on an employee’s “regular rate of pay.

This past month, the California Supreme Court granted a petition to review the Court of Appeal’s decision in Camp v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) recently ruled that it is illegal for employers to offer severance agreements that include broad non-disparagement and confidentiality provisions to employees, even those without union representation.

Ruling on a narrow, but significant question, the US Supreme Court affirmed that the white-collar overtime exemptions under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) require employers to pay an employee on an actual “salary basis.”

In another reversal of course, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way again for California employers to require arbitration agreements.

The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board’s COVID-19 Prevention Non-Emergency Regulation is now in place. It took effect on February 3, 2023, following approval by the state’s Office of Administrative Law.

Please join Eva Pulliam, ArentFox Schiff Partner and AFSCRE* Founding Board Member, as she speaks with Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America.

California’s new pay transparency law requiring disclosure of pay scales in job openings went into effect on January 1, 2023. The new law requires California employers to disclose the pay range for a job if an applicant asks for it after an initial interview.

Similar to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), California law requires an employer to pay overtime based on an employee’s “regular rate of pay.” That rate may not be just an employee’s hourly wage, or straight time, rate.

Megan Daily presented “What’s in a Contract and Why” at the DC Pro Bono Center’s How the Law Impacts Your Small Business seminar series on January 31, 2023.

Labor and Employment class actions involving contractors are on the rise in California, especially in its $50-plus billion per annum agricultural industry — 12.5% of all agricultural production nationwide. Employers using seasonal workers are always at risk of wage/hour class action lawsuits.