By Edwin S. Hopson
On March 29, 2012, in Center For Social Change, Inc., 358 NLRB No. 24 (2012), the five member National Labor Relations Board unanimously rejected a contention by the respondent that President’s Obama’s recess appointments of Members Block, Griffin and Flynn in January 2012, were invalid and that therefore the Board lacked ...
By Michelle High
On March 20, 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in Coleman v. Court of Appeals of Maryland, that narrows state and municipal employees' ability to collect damages for certain violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act. In its ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court held that states cannot be sued under the FMLA for failing to ...
By Kim Koratsky*
On occasion, we discover a problem only once it becomes one. For example, employers find that a long time employee, whose position requires a professional registration or license, has lost the requisite credentials for the position. While the employee had the proper credentials when hired, the ...
On March 15, 2012, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) filed a motion to intervene with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Noel Canning v. National Labor Relations Board, Case No. 12-1115, an appeal by Noel Canning of an unfair labor practice decision by the Board issued ...
The legal challenge to Indiana’s new business-friendly right-to-work law may be short lived. Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers sued in federal court claiming the law is both unconstitutional and pre-empted by federal labor law. The Union has withdrawn its motion for a TRO enjoining enforcement of ...
By George J. Miller
On March 8, 2012, Lafe E. Solomon, Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, issued a Summary of Operations for fiscal year 2011 (October 1, 2010 -- September 30, 2011), containing preliminary figures for the fiscal year. This data reveals a continuing slowdown in labor union activity across the country ...
In National Association of Manufacturers v. National Labor Relations Board, et al., Civil No. 11-1629 (ABJ), U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an appointee of President Obama’s, issued her decision on March 2, 2012, granting in part and denying in part the plaintiff association’s request to block the NLRB’s new ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
On February 27, 2012, the NLRB’s Acting General Counsel announced that he was considering consolidation of some of its regional offices. Apparently as a result of declining case loads, the Board's Acting General Counsel announced a pilot program to look at consolidating regional offices in St. Louis, Missouri (Region ...
By John W. Woodard, Jr.
Indiana’s new business-friendly right-to-work law is being challenged in federal Court. Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers has filed suit seeking to enjoin enforcement of the law claiming that it is both unconstitutional and pre-empted by federal labor law. A Motion for Temporary ...
Recently, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a “Questions and Answers” piece about informal guidance it had offered on November 11, 2011, about how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to qualification standards for jobs. Specifically addressed was a typical qualification for ...