Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week


Given that it is the summer and there is an influx of teen and young adult employees in the workplace for a couple months, I wanted to lead off this post with a note about workplace rights for these workers.  As I mention, even for those readers that are not teen or young adult employees, some of these things to keep in mind are well worth a read.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.


Ten Things Every Teen & Young Adult Employee Should Remember About Workplace Rights

We are well into the summer work season when high school and college age employees are in the workforce.  Donna Ballman has a great note on ten things that these workers should remember when it comes to workplace rights.  Highly relevant, even for those that are not teen or young adult employees!


Court/Department of Labor Approval May Be Needed For FLSA Wage & Hour Claim Settlements

Dan Schwartz over at The Connecticut Employment Law Blog has a well written note on an August 2015 case out of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals which suggests that federal court or the Department of Labor approval might needed for an FLSA wage & hour claim settlement.  Dan pulls a few key parts out of the court's opinion to highlight the issue.  Quick read...and well worth it.


The District of Columbia Pushes Back Vote on Work Scheduling Bill

The Washington CityPaper has an interesting note on the D.C. Council postponing a vote on legislation that would require retailers and chain stores with 40 or more venues to give their workers two weeks notice of work shifts, or risk penalties.  Apparently the vote was delayed because of "some unreadiness" to advance the bill in its current form.  If that is the case, it certainly makes sense to get all the ducks in a row before attempting to pass this legislation.  Readers might remember similar legislation working its way through the California Legislature as well.  Interesting to see how both of these pieces of legislation progress.


San Diego Voters Approve Minimum Wage Hike and Mandatory Paid Sick Leave

Earlier this month, voters in San Diego approved a ballot measure which would increase minimum wage for workers in the city along with a provision that would provide mandatory paid sick leave.  As Robin Largent notes, the new law applies to all employers, regardless of size.  This is quite a development.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo
Post a Comment
Read more

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies in the state, to per
Post a Comment
Read more