The United States House of Representatives has passed the PRO Act, which now moves to the Senate for consideration. If passed, the PRO Act would probably be the most radical, and union friendly, change to U.S. labor law since the passage of the National Labor Relations Act (Act) in 1935. And it is keeping us
Adam Santucci
NLRB Restores Decades Old Case Law Related to Employee Discipline Prior to Negotiation of a First Contract
By Adam Santucci on
Posted in Unions
The National Labor Relations Board has restored a prior standard, one that had stood for about 80 years before being overturned in 2016, which governs an employer’s duty to bargain over employee discipline during the time period between when a new union is certified and a first contract is negotiated. In 800 River Road Operating…
NLRB Adopts Single Rule to Evaluate Employee Misconduct
By Adam Santucci on
The National Labor Relations Board has traditionally applied separate tests to evaluate whether employee discipline violated the National Labor Relations Act, depending on the context of the underlying misconduct. This has resulted in heightened protection for employee misconduct that takes place during the course of protected activity, such as strikes. However, in General Motors LLC…
Gov. Wolf Orders All ‘Non-Life-Sustaining’ Pa. Businesses to Close Physical Locations to Address COVID-19 Outbreak
By Adam Santucci on
Posted in Workplace Trends
As of 8:00 p.m. Thursday evening, March 19, 2020, all “non-life-sustaining” businesses throughout Pennsylvania must close its physical locations in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, according to a new order issued by Gov. Tom Wolf.
The new mandate, which is a follow-up to the administration’s recommendation that all non-essential businesses suspend operations to…
President Trump Signs Families First Coronavirus Response Act to provide Paid FMLA Leave and Paid Sick Leave in Response to COVID-19
By Andrew L. Levy, Langdon Ramsburg & Adam Santucci on
Yesterday, President Trump signed into law historic legislation that will have a significant impact on a many employers nation-wide. The legislation, called the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, has many provisions. We will focus this discussion on the workplace issues that most employers can expect to face.
Paid Sick Leave
The law includes the Emergency…
NLRB Joint Employer Saga Comes to an End (for now) with New Final Rule
By Adam Santucci on
Posted in Employer Liability, Unions
On February 26, 2020, the National Labor Relations Board issued a final rule governing joint-employer status under the National Labor Relations Act. The final rule restores the test that the Board had applied for several decades prior to the 2015 Obama-era decision in Browning-Ferris. The final rule also provides more clear guidance on the issue,…
NLRB Brings Some Clarity, Consistency and Sanity to Confidential Investigations
By Adam Santucci on
Posted in Unions
The flurry of activity from National Labor Relations Board in late 2019 was a fairly consistent drum beat of good news for employers. In many cases, the Board restored decades of precedent that had been upended by the Board during the Obama administration. Some would say the Board restored order and sanity in the world…
NLRB Issues Rule Repealing Key Components of Quickie Election Rules
By Adam Santucci on
Posted in Unions
If you follow our blog, you know that the National Labor Relations Board’s election rules have been a hot topic over the past several years. The Board’s election rules are critical, because time can often make a difference in whether a union election is won or lost.
In 2011, the Board started the process to…
Misclassifying Workers as Independent Contractors Does Not Violate NLRA
By Adam Santucci on
Posted in Employer Liability, Workplace Trends
A lot of times, determining whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee is tough. Different laws have different standards, and government agencies and the courts often apply different tests in addressing this question. Under any test, the analysis is highly fact intensive, and the consequences of misclassification can be steep.
Luckily, the…
National Labor Relations Board Issues New Proposed Rules
By Adam Santucci on
Posted in Unions
On August 9, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The Notice, which was issued on August 12, 2019, covers three proposed rules. A majority of the Board is proposing to change the Blocking Charge Policy, the Voluntary Recognition Bar and rules governing union recognition in the construction industry.
The…