By Kim Koratsky
By a 70-28 vote, the Senate passed a new jobs bill, sending the bill back to the House for final approval. Democrat leaders promise more jobs bills are on the way. This bill contains two major provisions. First, it would exempt, through December, businesses hiring the unemployed from the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax, then ...
By Debra H. Dawahare
Employers are often tempted to learn more than they really want to know about their employees, especially if the employer suspects a fraudulent workers’ compensation claim, illegal drug use, or other behavior that could affect work performance or reflect poorly on the company. Except in extreme and very well controlled ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
The new edition of the Kentucky Unemployment Compensation Handbook authored by Debra H. Dawahare, George J. Miller and Edwin S. Hopson of the law firm of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, LLP includes the following updated information:
- Expanded information regarding successor employers
- Expanded information on constructive discharge
By Kim Koratsky
A federal judge in Iowa has ordered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to pay more than $4.5 Million in attorneys’ fees and expenses to CRST Van Expedited, a Cedar Rapids trucking company. While it is somewhat unusual for a defendant to be awarded fees against a plaintiff, it is quite rare that fees are awarded against ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
Currently, there is controversy over the U.S. Senate’s lack of action in confirming President Obama’s nominees to be members of the five-person National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Since the end of December, 2007, the NLRB has been operating with only two Members (instead of five). The issue of whether this constitutes ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
On February 11, 2010, just before the Senate’s recess for the Presidents’ Day weekend, the Senate, by unanimous consent, confirmed some 27 of President Obama’s pending presidential appointments. This came after a meeting on February 9 in which the President, according to a Whitehouse press release, “told Senator ...
By Kim Koratsky
The American Psychiatric Association has proposed adding binge eating and excess gambling to the list of psychiatric disorders in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Certainly, mere inclusion in the DSM-5 won’t mean that one of these disorders will automatically fall under ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
On February 9, 2010, President Obama's nominee for one of the open seats on the five-member National Labor Relations Board, Craig Becker, failed to win the necessary 60 votes in the Senate to get past a filibuster of his nomination. The vote was 52 to 33, with two Democratic Senators, Ben Nelson (NE) and Blanche Lincoln (Ark ...
By George J. Miller
The table below shows results from elections supervised by the National Labor Relations Board in 2009 in four states where the Wyatt firm has offices. Compared to national statistics for certification elections (see earlier post on this blog), employers in Kentucky fared much better than average, while employers in Indiana ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had announced that a cloture vote on the nomination of Craig Becker to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Boardwais now set for 5:00 p.m. on Monday, February 8, 2010. However, due to the record snow fall in Washington, D.C., the vote was pushed back to Tuesday, February 9, 2010, at 5 ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
On February 4, 2010, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Patricia Smith to be Solicitor of Labor by a vote of 60 to 37. A vote had been held on February 1 to end a filibuster on Smith's nomination by Senate Republicans.
The New York Times reported today that some Republican Senators complained that Smith's nomination was ...
By Kim Koratsky
I wrote an article for the January issue of The Federal Lawyer, the national magazine of the Federal Bar Association. The article is entitled Alphabet Soup, and is a primer on labor and employment law from the federal law perspective. If you do not receive the magazine and would like to read the article, click here: The Federal Lawyer ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
The Senate Heath, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) voted today to approve the nomination of Mr. Craig Becker to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in a 13 to 10 party-line vote. This is closer than the HELP Committee's previous vote on his nomination in the last session of Congress when Senator ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
At the short hearing before the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on February 2, 2010, on the nomination of Craig Becker to be a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the only witness was the nominee himself. Mr. Becker is currently associate general counsel for the Service ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
The ranking member of the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Senator Michael Enzi, and all 10 Republicans on the Committee have called for the withdrawal of President Obama’s nomination of Patricia Smith to be Solicitor of Labor at the U.S. Department of Labor. On February 1, 2010, Senator Enzi ...