Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week


Another short week with work travel has left me less time that I would have liked t read through articles.  Although the update on the approval of D.C.'s new family leave plan is paramount in so much as it may lead to other cities adopting a similar measure.  Time will tell, but this is certainly a major 'win' for advocates of a more comprehensive family leave plan in the U.S. (similar to the rather generous family leave plans offered to employees in other countries, often throughout Europe).

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


D.C. Approves Broad Family Leave Plan

In late December, the D.C. City Council approved by a 9 - 4 vote one of the more expansive family leave plans in recent memory.  (Readers might recall that the plan was granted preliminary approval in early December.)  As Alison Thoet over at NPR writes, under the approved measure, the Universal Paid-Leave Amendment Act will give 8 weeks of leave to new parents, six weeks of leave to care for a gravely ill family member, and two weeks of leave for personal sick leave.  For those wondering, this leave plan will be funded by a new business tax that is expected to raise $250 million a year to cover costs.


Nationwide Protests Occur Ahead of Labor Nominee Andy Puzder's Confirmation Hearings

Readers will likely remember that President-elect Donald Trump nominated CKE Restaurant Holdings CEO Andy Puzder to be the new Labor Secretary.   After the nomination was announced, several pro-employee groups and foundations spoke out against the nomination on the grounds that Puzder's prior comments indicated that he would not be employee friendly (or at least not as much as current Labor Secretary Tom Perez).  Ahead of Puzder's confirmation hearings next week, KXAN reported that protests have popped up around the country as pro-employee groups (& many hourly workers) have started to voice their concern over Puzder's nomination.  Will it be enough to impact the confirmation hearings?   Probably not, at least for the time being.

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