I just returned from the Cornell HR in Hospitality Conference in Las Vegas with my partner Carolyn Richmond. I participated in the Executive Summit and shared ideas with some of the most innovative minds in the hospitality industry. Here is my annual top ten list of take-aways:
When you draft employment arbitration agreements, it’s not enough to know what the law is. You should also know what the law will be at the time that someone challenges the agreement. Since this area of law changes continuously, that’s pretty hard to do without a crystal ball.
For a while, some courts in California
At least some good has come out of the Supreme Court’s finding that President Obama’s recess appointments were invalid in Noel Canning. By virtue of the Supreme Court’s decision, the Labor Board reconsidered its decision in Fresenius USA (pdf) and concluded that an employer acted lawfully when it discharged a union supporter for lying
When Cooper Tire & Rubber Company brought in replacement workers during a lockout, picketing strikers shouted a range of obscenities. The NLRB’s tolerance of obscenities in this context is well documented. But on this occasion, the comments were both obscene and racist. Comments directed at African-Americans included things like:
Warning: This post contains words that you used to not be able to say on TV.
The NLRB believes that vulgarity in connection with organizing campaigns is A-OK. As reported by Ben James at Law360 (subscription), the Board ruled that buttons and stickers that say “Cut the Crap” and “WTF” are not so offensive
In keeping with its clear pro-union agenda, late last year, the NLRB overruled its past precedent and held that employers who grant employees access to their email systems must now allow them to use the email system for Section 7 activity during nonworking time. Under the NLRA, Section 7-protected activity could include such things as
On December 15, 2014, in a split decision along party lines, the National Labor Relations Board (“the Board”) in Babcock & Wilcox Construction Co., Inc., overruled 30 year-old precedent that will needlessly undermine the utility and finality of arbitrations that concerned allegations of retaliation, interference and coercion with employees Section 7 rights. The Board did
We’ve been expressing concern about the National Labor Relations Board’s efforts to implement “quickie election” rules for over a year. Well, the rules are now in place and they’re part of a double-whammy for employers. First, the NLRB reversed course to decide that unions
If you have unionized workers, you know that a union gets to request information that may be relevant to it its functions. This includes information potentially relevant in deciding to grieve a matter or to assisting with bargaining. Employers must respond to these requests in a timely fashion, even if they think the request is
On July 30, we blogged about the recent efforts of the National Labor Relations Board to hold corporate franchisors, such as McDonald’s, liable for the acts of individual franchisees toward employees under the theory that the “parent” company is a “ joint employer.” We opined that this effort was a “stretch” to deviate from traditional