Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week


It has been another busy week in the office and on the road (and unfortunately will not slow down much next week).  However, I did have some time on a few flights to browse through some articles and found a few of note that I wanted to highlight for readers this week.

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


Work-Life Balance Programs a Win-Win For Federal Employees & Government

A recent report from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management notes that recently implemented work-life balance programs are allowing federal employees to better balance their work and personal lives while also yielding higher job performance, job satisfaction, and an interest in staying in their government position.  These work-life balance programs allow many federal employees to telework and have flexible working schedules.  75% of federal employees that have the opportunity to participate in one of these work-life balance programs reported that it "improved their performance, morale, and increased their intent to stay at their current agency."  While there has been some resistance to these work-life balance programs from agency management, it appears that these types of programs are beneficial to both employees and employers in the longrun.  Although these work-life programs are not applicable to all jobs and workplaces, it can certainly be beneficial to all parties involved, depending the situation.


Spending Bill Would Exempt Minor League Baseball Players From Federal Labor Laws

Over the past few years, there has been on ongoing fight by some minor league baseball players as they attempt to get paid minimum wage and overtime for playing baseball.  However, Major League Baseball has maintained a strong lobbying presence in Washington, attempting to reinforce its argument that these minor league baseball players are actually seasonal/temporary workers and therefore fall under an exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act (‘FLSA’).  This exemption allows minor league teams to pay their players as little as $1,100/month without running afoul of the FLSA. With the proposed budget that was released earlier this week, a provision was included that provides minor league players are in fact exempt from the protections of the FLSA and therefore would not be entitled to minimum wage or overtime pay.  Now keep in mind this budget is not final and provisions could still be struck before it is passed.  But in the interim, this could turn into ‘strike three’ for minor league baseball players who have sought to gain the protections of the FLSA via legal filings and lawsuits.

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,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Breaking: Labor Secretary Rumored to Be Leaving Administration

A few hours ago, word leaked out that Labor Secretary Marty Walsh (“Walsh”) is in the midst of negotiations to head up the NHL Players Union and leave his position at the Labor Department. Walsh, who has served as the sole Labor Secretary under President Biden, has taken part in a labor renaissance of sorts as support for organized labor has increased during his term as Labor Secretary (although the number of workers that have joined a union over the past two years has not grown as mush as some expected.)  He has also overseen the ongoing negotiations with rail workers over a new contract, although that matter is still on shaky ground and playing out as we speak. As for who might step into the vacant Labor Secretary role, there are already rumblings that President Biden should nominate Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su (a strong labor advocate) or even a progressive like Senator Bernie Sanders.  Until Walsh officially gives his notice, however, I would expect some/many potential...
Post a Comment
Read more

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Vetoes Minimum Wage Hike

A few months ago, readers might remember that I pointed out that the New Jersey Legislature had voted to approve a minimum wage hike in the state .  Under the approved legislation, the minimum wage rate would rise to $10.10/hour in the next year and at least $15/hour over the next five.  (The current minimum wage rate in the state is $8.38/hour).  In that article, I had noted that the bill was then going to go before Governor Chris Christie for his approval or veto. As I had suggested previously, I thought that the Governor would likely veto the bill based upon his prior actions and comments on similar legislation.  Well, a few days ago, Governor Christie did just that and vetoed the bill on the grounds that it "would trigger an escalation of wages that will make doing business in New Jersey unfathomable."  Pointing to the increase in hourly minimum wage rates, the Governor referred to the bill as a "really radical increase."  (It is interesting to c...
Post a Comment
Read more