Skip to main content

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

 

Minimum wage (and a $15/hour wage rate) has been a hot topic over the years...not even counting the increased buzz around the matter since Democrats regained majority control of Congress (and the Presidency) in recent months.  With the stimulus bill that was signed into law this week, it is worth noting what did not make it into the final bill.  (Spoiler alert, it was the 15/hour wage rate proposal.)

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


Following Setback on $15/Hour Federal Minimum Wage Rate, Senators Regroup

Readers might have heard that last week, the Senate passed a $1.9 trillion stimulus package.  Despite attempts by Democratic Senators (and Independent Senator Bernie Sanders) to get a provision included in the legislation that would have raised the federal hourly minimum wage rate to $15, that provision was ultimately excluded.  However, as Newsweek writes, Senator Sanders in particular has doubled own and indicated that he will continue to seek ways to get a $15/hour wage rate bill through Congress.  With Democrats having majority control of both the House and Senate, so long as they can get the Senators to vote along party lines (which has proven difficult, *cough* Senator Kyrsten Sinema *cough*), they should be able to get this legislation passed.  Stay tuned.


FMLA Certification Procedures in the Age of the Coronavirus

Sheryl Estrada at HRDive wrote an article earlier this month in which she addressed several questions about FMLA certification procedures faced by many employers and HR professionals in regard to the coronavirus.  For those looking or a nuanced discussion of the topic, look no further than this article for a bit of guidance.


BP Latest Company Planning Hybrid Work Schedule Following Coronavirus Pandemic

As certain parts of the country (and world) slowly ease back into a more normal work schedule as vaccinations increase, many employers have started to plan (or even implement) new work procedures going forward.  As the BBC reports, BP has announced that it will seek to have its office staff work from home 40% of the time (or about two days a week.)  This “hybrid” schedule of working some days in the office while spending other days working remotely has started to become commonplace for many employers.  From reports I have read and things I have seen firsthand, many employees report they are more productive working remotely (whether it be because of no commute, less disruptions being away from the workplace, or other circumstances).  It should come as no surprise that some employers are eschewing the “traditional” requirement that employees report to the workplace when productivity (and oftentimes profit) are on the rise with employees working remotely.

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