Skip to main content

Mail or In-Person Voting? The NLRB Issues Guidance on Representation Elections During the COVID-19 Pandemic

As with many other facets of life, the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting how the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) handles representation cases. This week, in Aspirus Keweenaw & Michigan Nurses Ass’n, Petitioner, 370 NLRB No. 45 (2020), the NLRB adopted a new framework for the manner in which union elections should be conducted. Click here to […]

| 1 min read | Tagged: , , , ,
JL
Partner
RB
Former Associate

The NLRB Just Made It Harder To Lasso Franchisors And Affiliated Businesses For The Alleged Sins Of Their Compatriots

In 2015, the NLRB adopted a more relaxed standard for determining when an entity could be considered a joint employer and thus liable for alleged workplace wrongs along with a direct employer. Of course the result of the loosening of the reins meant an increase in the number of defendants listed on complaints as potentially […]

| 2 min read | Tagged: , , ,
CJ

Criticizing the Employer’s Workplace Diversity and Inclusion Policies

Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (the Act) gives employees the right to engage in “concerted activities” for “mutual aid or protection.” In general, “concerted activities” are activities or conduct by employees with or on the authority of other employees. This includes activities or conduct by one employee designed to initiate or induce […]

| 2 min read | Tagged: , ,
JM
Of Counsel

Winter 2020 Under Construction Newsletter – Out Now!

The winter edition of Snell & Wilmer’s Under Construction newsletter is out now! This issue addresses: Employees’ Use of Social Media to Complain About Working; Tips for Mediation of the Toughest Construction Disputes; Overview of the ConsensusDocs® 900 Public-Private Partnership (P3) Agreement and General Conditions; The Registrar of Contractors and the Residential Contractors’ Recovery Fund: […]

| 1 min read | Tagged: , , ,

Deferral By The NLRB To Grievance/Arbitration Procedures

Overruling 2014 precedent, see Babcock & Wilcox Construction, 361 NLRB 1127 (2014), the National Labor Relations Board (Board), last week in UPS, Inc. 369 NLRB No. 1 (Dec. 23, 2019), returned to the standard that applied from 1984 to 2014 for deferral of alleged unlawful discharges and/or disciplinary action against employees to contractual grievance/arbitration procedures. See Spielberg Mfg.Co., 112 […]

| 1 min read | Tagged: , , , , , ,
JM
Of Counsel

Employers May Discontinue Checkoff of Union Dues at Expiration of Union Contract

In a December 16, 2019 decision, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) held that employers’ statutory obligation to checkoff union dues pursuant to their union contracts ends when said contracts expire. Overruling relatively recent precedent, the Board based its decision on the principle that there is no independent statutory obligation to check off and remit dues […]

| 1 min read | Tagged: , ,
JM
Of Counsel

Employees’ Use of Social Media to Complain About Working Conditions

Employers often confront the question of whether employees can be disciplined for using social media, such as Facebook, to communicate with other employees about complaints regarding terms and conditions of employment. Frequently some of those communications are expressed in terms that are offensive and disparaging about the employer and/or specific supervisors. In deciding whether employees […]

| 2 min read | Tagged: , ,
JM
Of Counsel