During the 2020 legislative session, Virginia passed several important employment bills. Perhaps none is more consequential than H.B. 582. Effective as of May 21, 2021, it permits the governing bodies of Virginia cities, towns, counties, and school boards to adopt a local resolution or ordinance authorizing collective bargaining and recognizing labor unions.
Continue Reading Are You Ready? Preparing for the New Frontier of Public Bargaining in Virginia
In Johnson Controls, Inc., 368 NLRB No. 20 (July 3, 2019), the NLRB adopted a new framework for determining a union’s representative status once an employer has made a lawful anticipatory withdrawal of recognition based on disaffection evidence that the union has lost its majority status. Specifically, under Johnson Controls, a union seeking to demonstrate that it has reacquired majority status must do so in a secret ballot election conducted by the Board, rather than in an unfair labor practice proceeding.
Continue Reading NLRB Adopts New Framework in Cases of Employer Withdrawal of Union Recognition
The Board’s recent decision in Merck, Sharp, & Dohme Corp., 367 NLRB No. 122 (May 7, 2019) highlights the differences that can arise as a result of the collective bargaining process in the terms and conditions of employment for employers with a divided workforce of non-union and union-represented employees. In Merck, the Board majority reversed the Administrative Law Judge’s ruling that the employer had violated Section 8(a)(3) and (1) by offering a new, one-time paid holiday, “Appreciation Day” to all of its non-union employees to the exclusion of its union-represented employees.
Continue Reading NLRB Rules That Employer’s Exclusion of Union Employees From Paid Holiday Granted to Non-Union Employees is Lawful
As we reported last December, the NLRB, in The Boeing Company, 365 NLRB No. 154 (2017), reversed its workplace rule standard under Lutheran Heritage. On June 6, 2018, NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb issued a guidance memorandum which sheds additional light on the Board’s new balancing test and three-category approach.
Continue Reading NLRB Issues Guidance Memorandum for Workplace Rules
We have reported on several Board decisions issued by a new Republican majority in the final days of 2017, but questions remain as to what issues the Board will address next to scale back on Obama-era precedent. In recent weeks, Republican Board Members have provided some hints in a pair of footnotes in two unpublished decisions.
Continue Reading NLRB Members Drop Hints in Footnotes Regarding Potential Issues the Board will Revisit