The Administrative Task Force plays a critical role in keeping our OSHA practice current and vibrant. We follow developments daily and we work together to analyze the impact that proposed and actual changes will have on the law in general and specifically on our client’s industries. Employers today face an unprecedented range of workplace safety and OSHA legal issues as government increases worker safety and health regulation and demands meticulous reviews by its OSHA inspection force.
Despite its enactment nearly two decades ago, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) continues to evolve through judicial interpretation. The following five cases from 2011 present lessons of which all employers should be mindful heading into 2012.
Continue Reading...Despite the on-going litigation and Republican opposition in Congress, the Administration continues to work on implementing the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act of 2010, as amended (the “Act”). Set out below is a brief review of the following important developments from the past 12 months.
Two members of the National Labor Relations Board recently held that employers may not require employees to enter into arbitration agreements, as a condition of employment, that waive the ability to pursue class or collective claims. The Board’s ruling does not sound the death knell for class action waivers, however, as many Plaintiff’s lawyers have touted.
Continue Reading...The U.S. Department of Labor provides general information and compliance guidance regarding numerous wage, hour, employment, and labor laws via “fact sheets” which are available to employees, employers, and the general public. Fact sheets can serve as helpful reference and compliance material for employers. On December 23, 2011, the DOL issued three new fact sheets on the issue of unlawful retaliation. These newly released fact sheets address retaliation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers Protection Act (“MSPA”).
Continue Reading...On December 15, 2011, the Department of Labor issued proposed rule changes that would extend the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime protections to the roughly two million in-home caregivers providing services to the elderly and infirm. If enacted, the changes would eliminate the FLSA’s longstanding companionship and live-in domestic service exemptions, and likely lead to a major change in the in-home care worker industry.
Continue Reading...On Monday, the National Labor Relations Board swore in three new Board Members. The NLRB now has a full Board with five Members for the first time since August 2010. The new members -- Sharon Block, Terence F. Flynn, and Richard Griffin -- were named by President Obama on January 4, 2012, as recess appointments.
Their membership on the Board will likely be a continuing source of political friction and legal controversy since the Senate was not formally in recess at the time the President announced their appointments. The U.S. House of Representatives Education and Workforce Committee, led by Republican Rep. John Kline (Minn.), is investigating the appointments and has asked the NLRB and the White House to provide information about the qualifications of the new Members and the President’s legal authority to make the appointments.
The Ninth Circuit did an about-face last week by reversing its earlier decision in Sepulveda v. Wal-Mart and nixing the proposed class action. The decision is further evidence of the post-Dukes difficulty plaintiffs face when attempting to certify Rule 23(b)(2) classes seeking monetary relief.
Continue Reading...In a political shocker, President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that he will make recess appointments to immediately fill three NLRB Board Member vacancies. President Obama’s appointees include two Democrats, union lawyer Richard Griffin and Labor Department official Sharon Block, and one Republican, NLRB lawyer Terence Flynn.
Continue Reading...President Barack Obama recently announced that he intends to nominate Sharon Block and Richard Griffin to the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”).
Block and Griffin (both lawyers) have significant experience working to advance organized labor policies. Block is currently the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor. She was previously a senior labor counsel for the Senate Health, Education, and Labor and Pensions Committee and worked for Senator Edward Kennedy during that time. Block also served at the NLRB as an attorney. Griffin is the general counsel for the International Union of Operating Affairs, and he is a member of the board of directors for the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee.
Continue Reading...We reported last week that the NLRB's new "ambush election rule," as it is called by some critics, is facing a federal court challenge from a coalition of business groups led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The filing of that litigation has interfered with the Board's plans to implement its employer notice posting rule, issued earlier this year. That rule -- which requires private-sector employers covered by the NLRA to post a notice that tells employees about their right to unionize, gives examples of unlawful employer and union conduct and tells employees how to contact the NLRB with questions and complaints -- has also been challenged in the Chamber's lawsuit. The NLRB earlier had postponed implementation of the rule until January 31, 2012. The judge, however, recently told the parties to the suit that she did not think the Board's January deadline would allow them sufficient time to argue the merits of the rule.
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