Skip to main content

What I’ve Been Reading This Week


Here we are, a week into the new year and there are a few updates/developments on some labor & employment law topics that dominated the news during 2020.  I call attention to these updates in particular, given that these are ongoing topics that I expect we will hear more about as 2022 unfolds.  Of course in the coming weeks we will give a nod to the two cases that were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this morning.  However, for the time being, we will focus this post on a few other topics.

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



Let us call this a bit of breaking news as earlier this morning, Citigroup announced that by January 31st, it will terminate all unvaccinated workers.  While the company had previously indicated it would require the coronavirus vaccine as a condition of employment, it was a bit unclear as to what the company would ultimately do with those workers that did not get the vaccine.  According to Citigroup, because of its role as a government contractor, it decided to follow the edict previously set out by President Joe Biden that the employees of any federal contractor must get the coronavirus vaccine.  For those Citigroup workers that have not yet gotten the vaccine (which is apparently about 10% of Citigroup’s workforce), time is running out before the pink slip is handed out…  



Sebastian Herrera over at The Wall Street Journal wrote an article in which he noted that as a result of the high employee turnover at Amazon, it muddies the waters as union organizers and the company try and prepare for a second election at the Bessemer, Alabama warehouse.  As the article notes, an estimated 1,000 employees at the Bessemer location left their employment between the time when the first election occurred and when it ended (approximately a two month timeframe.)  Given the warehouse employs about 6,000 workers (with only about half voting in the first election), this has made it difficult for both the union organizers and the company to plan (and predict) the outcome of the second election that has been ordered to take place this year.  As with many developing stories headed into 2022, this is one to keep an eye on.



Marty Walsh, the Labor Secretary, recently did an interview with The Washington Post in which he touched on several key happenings in the employment law sector since he became the Labor Secretary nearly a year ago.  I will refer readers to the text of the interview itself.  While there is nothing “earth shattering” in terms of news or comments from Secretary Walsh, it is worth a quick read for anyone looking for some insight into how the Labor Secretary (and the President Joe Biden Administration) view the past year.

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

What I've Been Reading This Week

Recently, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Commissioner, Chai Feldblum, had her re-nomination on the brink, after Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee took steps to block it .  Readers might have heard that late last week, Commissioner Feldblum's re-nomination quietly slipped away and she tweeted out a thank you to supporters and friends, acknowledging that her time at the EEOC was over.  While there has not been much in the way of a further update in regard to that ongoing saga, we wait to see how things will play out at the EEOC, now that it has lost a quorum until additional Commissioners are confirmed by the Senate. For the time being, there are other developments for readers to review this week.  In particular, I call attention to the article on managing a wage & hour audit by the Department of Labor as well as steps an employer can take to better ensure compliance with the ADA. As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Senator Bernie Sanders To Introduce Bill Requiring Large Corporations To Pay For Federal Assistance Programs

Next week, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is set to introduce legislation which would require large employers such as Walmart, Amazon, and McDonald's to fully cover the cost of food stamps, public housing, Medicaid, and other federal assistance programs that their employees receive.  Senator Sanders has stated that the goal is to force these large employers to pay their employees a living wage and cut back on the nearly $150 billion in taxpayer dollars that go toward funding these federal programs every year. As for the specifics, a 100% tax on government benefits received would be imposed on government benefits received by workers at companies with 500 or more employees.  For instance, if a Walmart employee received $500 in food stamps, Walmart would be taxed $500. To call this proposed legislation groundbreaking would be an understatement.  I would expect that Senator Sanders, an Independent that caucuses with Democrats, is going to face an uphill battle gett...
Post a Comment
Read more