By Edwin S. Hopson
On July 14, 2014, the White House announced that President Obama was sending to the Senate the nomination of Democrat Sharon Block, currently working as an attorney at the U.S. Department of Labor, to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board for the term of five years expiring December 16, 2019, replacing Democrat Nancy ...
By George J. Miller
Today, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Harris v Quinn, 573 U.S. ___ (2014) that it is a violation of the First Amendment for a group of home health care providers (personal assistants or PAs) working in the State of Illinois’ Medicaid program to be required to pay an “agency fee” to a union (the Service ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
On June 26, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court in NLRB v. Noel Canning et al., 573 U.S. ___ (2014), held in a unanimous decision that President Obama’s purported recess appointment of three members (Richard Griffin, Sharon Block and Terence Flynn) to the National Labor Relations Board in January 2012 was invalid. The opinion written ...
By Mitzi D. Wyrick
In Creech, Inc. v. Brown, et al, 2012-SC-000651 (Ky. 2014) rendered June 19, 2014, the Kentucky Supreme Court altered the landscape for employers who have covenants not to compete signed by their employees. The employer, Creech, Inc. (“Creech”), provided hay and straw to farms. In 2006, after Donald Brown (“Brown” ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
In early June 2014, a National Labor Relations Board Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) in Professional Electrical Contractors of Connecticut, Case No. 34-CA-071532, ruled that a number of handbook provisions violated the National Labor Relations Act. The handbook applied to employees who largely worked in the field on ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
On May 13, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board (Members Hirozawa and Schiffer; Member Johnson, dissenting) announced that in Browning-Ferris Industries and Leadpoint Business Services, Case No. 32-RC-109684, a union representation election case, that it had granted review of the regional director’s decision in ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
In Register Guard, 351 NLRB 1110 (2007) the Board (a majority of whom were Republicans), enforced an employer policy which prohibited employees from using its email system for non-work-related purposed. It stated then that “… employees have no statutory right to use the[ir] Employer’s e-mail system for Section 7 ...
By R. Joseph Stennis
This morning at Northwestern University’s campus located in Evanston, Illinois, players from the school’s football team cast secret ballots to determine whether to form the nation’s first union for college athletes. A total of seventy six football players were eligible to vote, but none were required to do so. It is ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has just denied the NLRB’s request for an en banc rehearing in DR Horton Inc.
In December, 2013, a panel of the Fifth Circuit rejected the Board’s finding that Section 7 of the Act prevented employers, as a condition of employment, from putting in place arbitration agreements that waived ...
By R. Joseph Stennis
In support of National Equal Pay Day, President Obama signed an executive order on April 8, 2014, that prohibits federal contractors from retaliating against workers who discuss their compensation with each other and/or in the workplace. According to White House officials, this executive order will not compel workers to ...