Skip to main content

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

 

With spring right around the corner (after all, Daylight Saving Time is this weekend), it is about the time of year when Girl Scouts will be outside your local grocer selling cookies.  That leads to an article I highlighted below which addresses whether an employer can allow a group like the Girl Scouts on their property while prohibiting other non employees (such as a union).  I will bury the lede and let readers find out more in the below article.

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


Girl Scouts vs. Unions...Can An Employer Lawfully Exclude One From the Premises But Not the Other?

I am sure many readers have gone to the grocery store before and seen Girl Scouts (or sometimes Boy Scouts) selling cookies outside the entrance or exit.  However, in my experience, I cannot recall ever seeing a labor union handing out pamphlets outside these same grocery store doors.  That begs the question:  Can an employer lawfully exclude one group from its premises while allowing another?  As Matthew Christoph writes, that answer is a resounding yes.  A National Labor Relations Board 2019 decision, Kroger Limited Partnership, held that an employer may bar non employees from protesting against businesses on the employer’s property while allowing non protest activities (such as solicitations for charitable donations or civic groups.)  So for those readers that are looking to load up on Girl Scout cookies this spring when making a run to their local grocer, you are in luck!


With Texas Governor Doing Away With Mask Requirement, OSHA Considerations For Employers Remain

Earlier this week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott decided to lift the mask mandate for Texans, much to the chagrin of many across the state.  For the purposes of this post, I would call attention to an article from The National Law Review which noted that even with the mask mandate being lifted, employers in the state still need to be wary of their obligations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (“OSHA”).  As readers might recall, OSHA sets out certain workplace safety requirements that employers must comply with.  In the case of the coronavirus pandemic, OSHA recently published guidance that suggests using masks in the workplace can slow the spread of the coronavirus.  While Governor Abbott’s measure impacts state law, OSHA is a federal law that employers in the state still need to follow.  For the time being, doing away with a mask requirement in the workplace might not be the best option.

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

Happening Tomorrow: Connecticut’s Minimum Wage Increases

For those employers and employees alike in Connecticut, mark your calendars as tomorrow, the minimum wage rate increases in the state from $13/hour to $14/hour. This wage hike comes after Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont had signed Public Act 19-4 into law in 2019 which progressively raised the state’s hourly minimum wage rate every year for five years.  In fact, next year, the hourly wage rate will top out at $15/hour.  Beginning in January of 2024, the hourly wage rate will be indexed to the employment cost index. For additional information:   https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/News/Press-Releases/2022/06-2022/Governor-Lamont-Reminds-Residents-That-Minimum-Wage-Is-Scheduled-To-Increase-on-Friday
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