Skip to main content

What I’ve Been Reading This Week


Ah yes, a delayed filing that potentially prohibits an attorney from arguing a motion or legal point.  Some attorneys might call that concerning; I would call it nightmare fuel.  I refer readers to the below article about a tricky situation Starbucks finds itself in due to a late filing.

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



Earlier this week, a Virginia Senate Committee blocked three different bills from proceeding ahead which would have repealed a planned statewide minimum wage hike.  Readers might recall that the current minimum wage rate, $11/hour, is set to increase yearly until it hits $15/hour in 2026.  For the time being, with this Committee blocking the three bills from moving forward, the eventual $15/hour wage rate is still full steam ahead.



As this article from The Huffington Post notes, Starbucks has been aggressively fighting unionization efforts at its stores.  In doing so, part of the company’s strategy has been to argue that elections should not occur on a store by store basis but rather by region.  (The argument follows that Starbucks could likely stand a better chance of beating back unionization efforts if they did not have to “fight” store by store.)  Following several stores in upstate New York moving to hold union elections, Starbucks asked the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) to halt any votes on a store by store basis and instead only allow regional elections.  The NLRB required Starbucks to submit a statement of position by noon on February 11th to consider the matter.  However, counsel for Starbucks apparently submitted its statement eight minutes after noon on the 11th and said the delay was due to email issues.  Unfortunately for Starbucks, a Regional Director held that the company’s untimely filing prevented them from making the arguments included in its statement.  Not good. 

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