Skip to main content

What I’ve Been Reading This Week


Even in a work from home setup, it feels like the last few weeks have been busier than normal.  Between Zoom calls, an increasing number of emails, and a few projects that pop up, I have not had as much time to read through articles as I anticipated.  It does not help that with not traveling right now, I do not have the benefit of reading through things while on a layover between cities.

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


As Target’s Sales Rise, Sickout Planned For Next Friday

Over the past few weeks, there has been a noticeable uptick in the number of workers and groups around the country calling for greater protections, increased pay, and related protection measures for those working in a position that interacts with the general public.  Lauren Zumbatch at The Chicago Tribune makes note of that fact as a sickout is planned for next Friday by some workers at the company.  The group spearheading this planned sickout, Target Workers Unite, is calling on the company do so more to protect its employees.  (It is worth noting that Target has temporarily increased the pay of its in store workers by $2/hour.)  Nevertheless, with online sales surging at Target over the past few weeks, it appears some workers at the company are hesitant to work and do not believe the company is doing enough to protect them.  It will be interesting to see how much attention next Friday’s sickout garners.



Earlier this week, the Virginia Legislature met to consider whether to delay implementation of several recently approved pieces of legislation, including one that would see the state raise its hourly minimum wage rate from $7.25/hour to $9.50/hour on January 1, 2021 (with an eventual hike to $15/hour by 2026.)  After Governor Ralph Northam had previously voiced support for a delay in changing the minimum wage rate, the Democratically controller Virginia Legislature voted to delay the wage hike until May 1, 2021.  (Subsequent wage hikes will not be affected.)  With Democrats having only recently gained majority control of the state legislature (and the Governor’s office), there was some hesitation to delay implementing what many sought as a “victory” that was a long time coming.  However, with there being growing unease among many in the state about having the wage hike take effect as planned, I would not call it much of a surprise that it was pushed off a few months.  The Legislature’s decision might not fall on receptive ears right now, especially among those minimum wage advocates that had January 1, 2021 circled on their calendars.  With that being said, that minimum wage hike is coming and it will be here before you know it.

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