Stephen P. Kopstein

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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) published proposed enforcement guidance for workplace harassment for public comment on October 2, 2023. The proposed guidance can be found on the EEOC’s website. While the EEOC attempted to provide updated harassment guidance under the Trump administration in 2017, final guidance was never issued and if this new guidance is finalized it would represent the first time the EEOC has updated its workplace harassment guidance in nearly a quarter century. …
Continue Reading Employers Take Note: Harassment Will Soon Have a Broader Meaning with the EEOC

A National Labor Relations Board Administrative Law Judge dismissed the General Counsel’s allegation that the employer violated the National Labor Relations Act by not giving the union representing its employee notice and opportunity to bargain over the discharge of an employee it represented. In doing so, the Administrative Law Judge teed up the issue for the Board to change the law on appeal. …
Continue Reading Get Your Bargaining Shoes On

National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo recently asked the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) to overrule its decision in Caesars Entertainment d/b/a Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino, 368 NLRB No. 143 (2019) (“Rio All-Suites”). The Rio All-Suites Board overruled the Board’s prior decision in Purple Communications, Inc., 361 NLRB 1050 (2014) (“Purple Communications”), which in turn overruled the Board’s decision in Register Guard, 351 NLRB 1110 (2007). All three cases deal with whether the National Labor Relations Act (“Act”) gives employees the right to use an employer’s email systems to engage in union and other protected concerted activities.
Continue Reading The NLRB is Reviewing Union Access to Employer Email and Electronic Communications Systems

An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) of the National Labor Relations Board (Board) recently issued a decision which hints that changes might be on the horizon for how the National Labor Relations Act (Act) is applied towards educational institutions with religious affiliations. Saint Leo University Inc., 2023 WL 2212789 (2023). …
Continue Reading NLRB Seeks To Expand Jurisdiction Over Educational Institutions with Religious Affiliations

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is finally poised to implement a permanent COVID-19 safety standard for healthcare employers, nearly three years after the pandemic first began in the United States. …
Continue Reading Better Late Than Never – OSHA Is Finalizing COVID Rules Nearly Three Years into the Pandemic

The National Labor Relations Board (Board) announced on June 21, 2022, that it intends to engage in rulemaking with respect to several subjects. One of those which was revealed to be a subject of rulemaking was joint-employer status under the National Labor Relations Act (Act).Continue Reading The National Labor Relations Board is Engaging in Rulemaking, Again

The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) recently indicated an openness to revisiting the independent contractor standard employed by the Board when assessing whether individuals are covered under the National Labor Relations Act (“Act”).
Continue Reading NLRB Is Looking to Review (Again) Independent Contractors And Who is Covered