01.16.2024Supreme Court Agrees To Resolve Circuit Court Conflict Over Standard For Section 10(j) Injunction In Unionization Efforts Targeting StarbucksThe boiling dispute over the unionization of baristas is heading to the Supreme Court. Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act authorizes federal courts to issue preliminary injunctions against employers that are allegedly violating federal labor law. This allows the National Labor Relations Board to seek this extraordinary relief at the outset of a case, before the employer can defend itself during the NLRB’s lengthy administrative process.
09.26.2023Angelo Genova To Participate As A Panelist At The 45th Annual NLRB Labor Law ConferenceGenova Burns Chairman & Co-Founding Partner Angelo J. Genova, Esq. will participate as a panelist the 45th Annual NLRB Labor Law Conference on November 17th. This conference will feature NLRB General Counsel and insightful discussions about NLRB updates, practice tips, and the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and practical ethical challenges facing every labor practitioner.
08.31.2023Risk of Cemex Bargaining Order Raises Stakes for Employers that Commit Serious Unfair Labor Practices During Union CampaignsExpressing palpable frustration with an employer that committed many unfair labor practice charges after a union filed an election petition, and acknowledging the lack of serious disincentives to engage in unlawful behavior opposing a union campaign, on August 25, 2023, the NLRB issued a new set of rules that will apply immediately to many employers and unions locked in a unionizing campaign. The major change is that the Board has determined that it has the power to impose a bargaining order on an employer that engages in serious unfair labor practice charges during an organizing campaign despite the union’s losing a Board-supervised election and without entertaining the remedy of a re-run election.
08.10.2023NLRB Applies a Shifting Burdens Analysis in Reviewing Employer Work Rules; Boeing OverruledOn August 2, 2023, the NLRB further limited employers’ flexibility in designing work rules by holding that all work rules will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and no work rules will get an automatic pass. The Board’s 3-1 decision in Stericycle Inc. holds that once the NLRB General Counsel proves that a work rule could chill employees’ exercise of Section 7 rights, there is a presumption that the rule is unlawful, which the employer can rebut only with proof that the work rule serves a lawful business interest, the rule advances the lawful interest, and a more narrowly tailored rule would not advance the interest.
08.03.2023Entrepreneurial Opportunity Takes A Back Seat In Revised NLRB Test Of Employee Versus Independent Contractor StatusOn June 13, 2023, in a 3-1 decision, the NLRB overruled its own 2019 decision in SuperShuttle DFW and returned to the test of statutory employee status in its 2014 FedEx II decision which it terms carefully calibrated. In doing so, the Board held that the Atlanta Opera’s makeup artists, wig artists, hairstylists, and others who worked at the Opera only when operatic productions were staged are employees within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act, and not independent contractors. The Atlanta Opera, Inc. The NLRB refused to apply the U.S. Court of Appeals 2009 ruling in FedEx I which held that entrepreneurial opportunity is an animating principle of the independent contractor test and accused the Court of misperceiving Board law. The Board decision in Atlanta Opera leaves no doubt that entrepreneurial opportunity is not a super-factor in the analysis of employee status, and is only one factor to be considered in analyzing independent contractor versus employee status. The NLRB held that its prior SuperShuttle DFW holding is no longer the law since it conflicts with common law agency principles, and U.S. Supreme Court and NLRB precedent.
06.27.2023New York Assembly Passes Bill to Ban Non-Compete AgreementsOn June 20, 2023, the New York State Assembly passed a bill (A1278B) to make non-compete agreements unlawful. The New York State Senate previously passed the bill’s counterpart (S3100A). The bills aim to prohibit non-compete agreements and authorize covered individuals to bring a civil action against employers alleged to have violated the bills’ provisions. The bills make clear that they would ban non-competes entered into or modified after the effective date. If signed by Governor Kathy Hochul, the bills would come into effect 30 days after being signed into law. While the business community reacted with shock and anger at the bills, the proposed bills in New York follow the nationwide trend against non-competes that we have been tracking for the past several years.
06.01.2023Non-Competes with Rank and File Employees Targeted by NLRB Challenges to non-competes by the federal government continue unabated under the Biden Administration. In the latest effort by the federal government to curtail the use of non-competes, which are traditionally governed by state law, on May 30, 2023, Jennifer A. Abruzzo, Esq., General Counsel of the NLRB, issued a memorandum attacking non-compete agreements as violative of the National Labor Relations Act (“Act”).
02.24.2023NLRB Places NDAs and Non-Disparagement Agreements with Rank and File Employees in its Cross-HairsOn February 21, 2023, in McLaren Macomb, 372 NLRB No. 58, the NLRB made a broadside attack on precedent and confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions in severance agreements signed by rank and file employees. This far-reaching decision calls into question the enforceability of standard severance and employment agreement provisions entered into with statutory employees going forward.
01.15.2020New Jersey Employers – The NLRB Loosens Restrictions On Confidentiality Instructions For InvestigationsOn December 16, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a decision in Apogee Retail LLC d/b/a Unique Thrift Store and Kathy Johnson, upholding an employer’s confidentiality instructions to employees involved in open workplace investigations and any investigations pending or initiated after December 16, 2019. When implementing this decision to its active investigations, New Jersey employers must be mindful of pro-employee laws which not only allow, but encourage employee discussion.
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