The Majority Opinion: Legal Blog

Quite the week for several developments on the labor & employment law front.  With that being said, the seminal moment might have been the confirmation of Alexander Acosta as the next Labor Secretary.  For those readers who followed the struggle the original nominee for the position had, Acosta's relatively smooth confirmation process was likely a welcomed bit of good news by the Trump administration as the President approaches the end of his first hundred days in office.  As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week. Senate Votes to Confirm Acosta as Next Labor Secretary As I mentioned above, late yesterday afternoon, the Senate voted to confirm President Donald Trump's nominee for Labor Secretary.  As expected, the vote fell mainly along party lines.  However, with Republicans having the necessary votes (a majority) to confirm Acosta without needing any Democrats, this nomination and confirmation were never really in ser...

National Labor Relations Board v. Missouri Red Quarries, Inc. - Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Facts :  Missouri Red Quarries, Inc. ("Missouri") operated a granite quarry in Ironton, Missouri.  Missouri is owned by Tom Oglesby ("Oglesby") who owns and oversees four other quarry operations.  As a result of not living in Ironton, Oglesby only visits the quarry about once a month.  Oglesby stays informed of events at the quarry by talking with Steve Johnston ("Johnston") for about ten minutes each week.  After an on-site supervisor left the Ironton quarry in June 2013, Oglesby implemented a decentralized system with four foremen and no named supervisors.  Johnston was named one of the foremen and took on administrative responsibilities.  (Approximately 90% of Johnston's time at work was spent performing typical bargaining-unit work and the remaining 10% was spent completing administrative tasks).  Employees at the quarry viewed Johnston as t...

North Carolina is a right to work state (and has been since 1947).  With that being said, Republicans in the state are seeking to add right to work to the Constitution via a voter referendum in November 2018.  In doing so, that would enshrine right to work in the state and make it much more difficult to overturn (compared to if right to work was not added to the North Carolina Constitution and a Democratic controlled Legislature could 'simply' pass a bill undoing right to work). Last week, the House Judiciary I Committee passed a bill along party lines, by a 6 - 5 vote, to allow for the voter referendum.  The bill is now on its way to the House Rules Committee.  With Republicans pushing this bill along, and appearing to have the necessary votes to approve the bill, this is certainly on the fast track.  However, Democrats in the Legislature have argued adding right to work to the Constitution is uneccesary with Democratic Representative Duane Hall going s...

Vance v. Amazon.com, Inc. et al. - Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Facts:  Tina and Aaron Vane (collectively referred to as "the Vances") worked at an Amazon.com warehouse fulfillment center in Kentucky.  Tina was an employee of Amazon and Aaron was a joint employee of Amazon and Kelly Services, a staffing agency.  Amazon tracked its workers hours with a time clock and had employees clock in at the beginning of a shift and clock out at the end of the workday.  However, before employees that had clocked out could leave, Amazon required them to go through a theft prevention security screening.  Employees went through a metal detector and security guards inspected bags and personal items.  If an employee set of the metal detector, a security guard would search them with a metal detecting wand.  Apparently, this screening took anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes.  The Vances were never paid overtime compensation for the time spent going through the sec...

Every so often, I come across an article that turns the conversation on a particular topic on its head.  This was one of those weeks.  Dale Buss wrote an article earlier this week which makes a compelling case for why rising minimum wage rates across the country might actually be having unintended & unwanted consequences.  From depressed labor workforces in certain industries to a lack of a reduction in poverty among hourly workers, Buss makes a strong case for why rising minimum wage rates might actually be killing jobs and leading to higher costs that are passed onto consumers.  If you are going to read one article this week, this is the one to read. As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week. A Sobering Look at the Realities of Rising Minimum Wage Rates Readers might recall minimum wage rates have been a hot button issue recently (well it has been for a while, but picked up during the past election cycle).  Dale Buss rec...

On Monday, an age discrimination, hostile work environment, and retaliation lawsuit was filed against the Dallas Opera by a former horn player, William Scharnberg.  In the alleged facts, Scharnberg claims that after nearly 30 years playing for the Opera, he was terminated in May 2016 and replaced with a 'much' younger player in his 20's.  This came on the heels of a prior attempt following the 2014 - 2015 season by the Opera to terminate his employment on the grounds of his playing style (the facts do not go into specifics, but presumably the Opera believed his playing style fell off, was not in accordance with what was expected of a horn player, etc).  However, Scharnberg appealed that initial attempt to terminate his employment and a unanimous decision was reached to retain him.  However, Scharnberg was terminated in 2016 on the grounds of his playing style.  At the time of his termination, Scharnberg was 67. In the petition filed in Court on Monday, S...

Linkletter v. Western & Southern Financial Group, Inc. - Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Facts :  Gayle Linkletter ("Linkletter") signed an online petition in support of a Cincinnati's women's shelter after having accepted a position with Western & Southern Financial Group ("Western").  (Note, Linkletter had worked for Western before from 1997 through 2006.  This would have been Linkletter's second "stint" at Western).  Before Linkletter began her second work relationship with Western, the company rescinded its employment agreement with Linkletter apparently because she had signed the petition while Western was engaged in a "lengthy" real estate dispute with the women's shelter over its location in the neighborhood. Linkletter subsequently sued Western and claimed that in response to her support of the women's shelter and Western's decision to rescind her employment contract, the company had violated the F...