Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week


I found it difficult to narrow things down this week and not highlight article after article after article (although I was certainly tempted.)  With that being said, I call attention in particular to an article from James Petrie in which he has a few ideas on how employers can limit potential exposure when hosting office parties this month.  While all of the four articles I highlighted this week are worth reading, Petrie's article in particular might be of the most use to readers in the coming weeks.

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


Joe Biden Proposes Prosecuting Companies For Labor Law Violations

Last weekend at a forum in Iowa, Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden stated that consideration should be given to prosecuting companies for labor law violations.  Currently, the National Labor Relations Board cannot impose punitive fines and instead can only collect back pay for workers, in the case of a violation of the National Labor Relations Act.  According to Biden, he would allow for the fines to be imposed on managers that violate labor laws and also consider criminal prosecutions.  Now while Biden's comments came at a Teamsters forum (and a traditionally "safe" event in which to make these pro-union comments), this comments further establish that Democrats are making aggressive plays to win over union members during this primary and general election campaign.


A Few Timely Reminders For Employers to Consider In Regard to Office Parties

Many workplaces are likely holding parties this month and with those parties comes potential exposure to liability for employers.  Now while this article from James Petrie does not suggest that employers do away with these office parties altogether, he does provide a few suggestions for employers to consider, including limiting (or entirely excluding) alcohol at these parties, taking steps to minimize the chance of sexual harassment occurring, as well as being mindful of diversity in regard to displaying and celebrating certain aspects of the holiday.


Heading Into the 4th Year of President Trump's Presidency, Host of Vacancies at Federal Labor Agencies Persists

Bloomberg Law published an article this past Wednesday in which it noted that key labor positions at many federal labor agencies remain unfilled, including an Assistant Secretary position at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA"), a Republican and Democratic Commission seats at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"), as well as two Democratic seats at that National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB"), among other key vacancies.  The article does point out that some of these vacancies are on "purpose", in order to leave policy decisions up to Republican majorities or groups of politically appointed leaders.  However, the article does recognize that although some of these vacancies have been allowed to exist for a prolonged period, there is some unease among businesses and labor groups which have argued that the vacancies have affected the pace and direction of policymaking and enforcement of certain workplace protections.  With the upcoming election and a potentially drawn out impeachment proceeding in the Senate at the start of next year, I would not be surprised if many of these vacancies at certain federal labor agencies continue for the foreseeable future.


White House Holds Summit on Child Care and Paid Leave

Yesterday, the White House held a summit in regard to one of the prominent labor and employment law topics dominating the news:  paid leave.  The summit brought together governors, senators, business leaders, and officials from the President Donald Trump administration in an effort to push for some tangible action on paid leave.  As the article from Fox Business points out, although no particular piece of legislation was announced, the summit sought to provide an avenue in which paid leave can find bipartisan support in order to move through Congress.  Stay tuned.

Comments

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

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

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