Labor Relations & Union Organizing

Announcing Conn Maciel Carey’s 2021 Labor and Employment Webinar Series

Theresa Green Leave a comment

2021 Labor and Employment Webinar Series

The legal landscape facing employers seems as difficult to navigate as it has ever been.  Keeping track of the ever-changing patchwork of federal, state and local laws governing the workplace may often seem like a full-time job whether you are a human resources professional, in-house attorney or  business owner.  Change appears to be the one constant.  As President Trump’s Administration comes to an end, employers will continue to closely track the changes taking place at the NLRB, the DOL and the EEOC.  At the same time, a number of states will continue introducing new laws and regulations governing workplaces across the country, making it more important than ever for employers to pay attention to the bills pending in the legislatures of the states where they operate.  This complimentary webinar series will focus on a host of the most challenging and timely issues facing employers, examining past trends and looking ahead at the issues most likely to arise.

Conn Maciel Carey’s complimentary 2021 Labor and Employment Webinar Series, which includes (at least) monthly programs put on by attorneys in the firm’s national Labor and Employment Practice, is designed to give employers insight into legal labor and employment developments.

​To register for an individual webinar in the series, click on the link in the program description below. To register for the entire 2021 series, click here to send us an email request, and we will register you. If you missed any of our past programs from our annual Labor and Employment Webinar Series, click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel to access those webinars.

2021 Labor & Employment Webinar Series – Program Schedule

California Employment Law Update for 2021

Wednesday, January 20th
Marijuana, Drug Testing and Background Checks

Tuesday, July 13th
COVID-19 Vaccine: What Employers Need to Know

Thursday, February 11th
Employee Misconduct Defense & Employment Law

Wednesday, August 11th
Employment Law Update in D.C, MD, VA and Illinois

Wednesday, March 24th
Employee Handbooks, Training and Internal Audits

Tuesday, September 21st
Withdrawal Liability Pensions

Wednesday, April 14th
NLRB Update

Tuesday, October 19th
ADA Website Compliance Issues –  Best Strategies for Employers

Tuesday, May 18th
Avoiding Common Pitfalls: Non-Compete, Trade Secrets and More!

Wednesday, November 10th
What to Expect from DOL Under the Biden Admin.

Wednesday, June 16th
Recap of Year One of the Biden Administration

Tuesday, December 14th
   

See below for the full schedule with program descriptions, dates, times and links to register for each webinar event.

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[Client Alert] New California Employment Laws for 2021 Will Leave Their Mark

Megan Shaked Leave a comment

By Andrew Sommer, Fred Walter, and Megan Shaked

2020 has been another banner year for California employment laws, with legislation and Cal/OSHA rulemaking associated with COVID-19 prevention and reporting taking center stage.  In our annual update of new employment laws impacting California private sector employers, we lead off with California’s COVID-19 related laws, given their far-reaching impact on the state’s workforce during the pandemic as employers continue to implement measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace.  We have also addressed other substantive legislative developments, particularly in the areas of wage and hour law and reporting of employee pay data.  Unless otherwise indicated, these new laws will take effect on January 1, 2021.

COVID-19 Related Rulemaking and Legislation

Temporary Emergency COVID-19 Prevention Rule Not to be outdone by Virginia OSHA, Oregon OSHA or Michigan OSHA, Cal/OSHA adopted an onerous COVID-19 specific temporary emergency regulation effective November 30, 2020.  Below is a detailed summary of how we got here, as well as an outline of what the rule requires.

On November 19, 2020, the California’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (Standards Board) voted unanimously to adopt an Emergency COVID-19 Prevention Rule following a contentious public hearing with over 500 participants in attendance (albeit virtually).  The Emergency Rule was then presented to California’s Office of Administrative Law for approval and publication.  The Rule brings with it a combination of requirements overlapping with and duplicative of already-existing state and county requirements applicable to employers, as well as a number of new and, in some cases, very burdensome compliance obligations.

The Standards Board’s emergency rulemaking was triggered last May with the submission of a Petition for an emergency rulemaking filed by worker advocacy group WorkSafe and National Lawyers’ Guild, Labor & Employment Committee.  The Petition requested the Board amend Title 8 standards to create two new regulations Continue reading →

Senate Confirms Two to NLRB, Ensuring Balance and Stability for Foreseeable Future

Mark Trapp Leave a comment

After passing out of committee earlier this summer, two nominees to the National Labor Relations Board – one Republican, one Democrat – were recently confirmed by the full Senate.gavel

Even though both nominees have Board experience, the confirmation votes reflected the ongoing partisan contention that has in recent years surrounded the labor agency, with Republican nominee Marvin Kaplan confirmed by a vote of 52-46 without a single Democrat voting in support, while just seven Republicans crossed over to confirm Lauren McFerran, who was confirmed 53-42. Kaplan is currently serving on the Board, while McFerran was previously confirmed in 2014 and served until last December, when her five-year term expired.

Traditionally, three board seats are held by members of the president’s political party while two are set aside for the opposition party. Thus, last week’s confirmations Continue reading →

Bargaining in a Time of Crisis

Mark Trapp Leave a comment

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the unprecedented response thereto by various layers of government has caused many, if not most businesses to rearrange their hours or operations, lay off employees or even to cease doing business altogether. Given this seemingly unprecedented situation, many unionized employers may wonder what duty they have to bargain over specific changes to their ways of doing business.NLRB Memo

General Counsel Peter Robb recently provided some helpful guidance summarizing prior NLRB case law on this timely topic. The first portion of Robb’s memo (GC Memo 20-04) summarizes various Board decisions touching on an employer’s duty to bargain during public emergency situations, such as hurricanes, 9/11 and other emergencies.

By way of background, because an employer’s decision to lay off bargaining unit employees is a mandatory subject of bargaining, an employer is generally obligated to bargain with an incumbent union with respect to both the decision to lay off and the effects of that decision. However, an exception to that rule exists if an employer can demonstrate that economic exigencies compel prompt action. Although the Board has consistently maintained a narrow view of this exception, unforeseen extraordinary events which have a major economic effect may fit within it.

For example, in Port Printing & Specialties, 351 NLRB 1269 (2007), the Board ruled Continue reading →

NLRB Finalizes Joint Employer Rule

Daniel C. Deacon Leave a comment

Joint EmployerOn February 26, 2020, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) published its final joint employer rule in the Federal Register, which tightens the test used to analyze whether workers are jointly employed by affiliated businesses. The final rule is intended to roll-back the stricter Obama-era standard that business interests have longed to overturn.

History of Joint Employer Rule

Under longstanding NLRB precedent, two employers could be joint employers if they shared or codetermined matters governing the employees’ essential terms and conditions of employment. Until 2015, to be a joint employer, a business had to exercise “direct and immediate” control over these employment matters

Then, the Obama-era NLRB overruled the old standard in its decision in Browning-Ferris, and substantially relaxed the standards for proving joint Continue reading →

NLRB General Counsel’s Comment Indicates Expected Restoration of Pro-Employer Precedent

Mark Trapp Leave a comment

During a recent conference at New York University, NLRB General Counsel, Peter Robb, hinted at the forthcoming restoration of more than fifty years of precedent allowing employers to cease withholding union dues after the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement containing the so-called “dues check-off” provision.

shutterstock_gavel.jpgAs reported by Law360, Robb referred to the 2015 Obama-era decision overturning that precedent as “misguided,” and stated further: “I think unless there’s clear language that the dues check-off should continue, it shouldn’t.” Prior to that 2015 decision, the Board had, since 1962, consistently held that dues check-off provisions, which implement union security provisions by providing for the automatic deduction of union dues, could be cancelled by employers upon contract expiration. See Bethlehem Steel Co., 136 NLRB 1500 (1962).

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NLRB Returns to Common-Law Test for Independent Contractors

Beeta B. Lashkari Leave a comment

Last Friday, the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) returned to its long-standing independent-contractor standard, reaffirming its adherence to the traditional common-law test.  In deciding SuperShuttle DFW, Inc. on January 25, 2019, shutterstock_424794466the Board voted 3-1 along party lines to overturn the 2014 Obama-era ruling in FedEx Home Delivery.  In that case, the Board modified the applicable test for determining independent-contractor status by “significantly limit[ing] the importance of [a worker’s] entrepreneurial opportunity.”  Specifically, the Board in FedEx created a new factor – “rendering services as part of an independent business” – and made entrepreneurial opportunity merely one aspect of that factor.  However, in its Friday decision, the Board found that FedEx impermissibly altered the common-law test, and clarified the essential role entrepreneurial opportunity plays in its determination of independent-contractor status.

In SuperShuttle, the Board analyzed the issue of whether franchisees who operate shared-ride vans for SuperShuttle Dallas-Fort Worth are employees covered under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) or independent contractors.  Shuttle van drivers for SuperShuttle sought to unionize at Dallas-Forth Worth airport, but the protections of the NLRA do not extend to independent contractors.  The Acting Regional Director, in making her decision before the 2014 FedEx case, applied the traditional common-law test and found that SuperShuttle met its burden in establishing that the franchisees are independent contractors and not employees.  After overturning FedEx and applying the common-law test, the Board affirmed the Acting Regional Director’s decision.

To start, the Board explained that the inquiry into whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor has traditionally depended on the common-law agency test, which involves the application of Continue reading →

California Employment Law Update for 2019 

Beeta B. Lashkari Leave a comment

By: Andrew J. Sommershutterstock_150165167

In the final days of California’s 2018 legislative session, and the end of his term, Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law a variety of employment bills, including a flurry of new legislation seeking to bolster the state’s workplace harassment laws in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement.  Conn Maciel Carey LLP provides this summary of key new employment laws impacting California private sector employers.  Unless otherwise indicated, these new laws just took effect on January 1, 2019.

#MeToo Legislation

Expanded Anti-Harassment Training Requirements

Existing law requires that employers with 50 or more employees provide at least two hours of sexual harassment training to all supervisory employees within six months of the individuals becoming supervisors, and at least once every two years thereafter.  Covered employers must provide classroom or other effective interactive training that incorporates the topics of sexual harassment and abusive conduct as well as harassment based on gender identity and expression and sexual orientation.

Senate Bill (SB) 1343 broadly expands the harassment training requirements to small employers and for the first time requires training of non-supervisory employees.

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Going Through Withdrawal – Strategies for Minimizing Your Multiemployer Pension Withdrawal Liability, Protecting Your Assets and Saving Your Business

Kara Maciel Leave a comment

Join Conn Maciel Carey Labor & Employment Practice Group partner, Mark Trapp, on November 14, 2018 when he presents an interactive workshop to help unionized employers understand and analyze what is often the most critical challenge facing their business – multiemployer pension withdrawal liability.  Attendees will learn innovative and aggressive techniques and strategies to address this issue and proactively secure the future of their company. Increasing Money Graph

This workshop will also discuss the current legislative environment for multiemployer pension plans and issues, particularly the work of the Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans, charged with preparing a report and recommended legislative language by November 30 to “significantly improve the solvency” of multiemployer pension plans and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

​Workshop attendees will:

  • Gain a broad understanding of the challenges facing employers who participate in a multiemployer pension plan

  • Discover strategies for assessing and minimizing their withdrawal liability risks through collective bargaining and business planning

  • Examine the status and possibility of legislative relief from the Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans

Click here to register.

NLRB Seeks to Change Joint Employer Test by Rulemaking

Kara Maciel Leave a comment

By:  Mark Trapp

On September 14, 2018, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Notice”). In its Notice, the Board states its belief that the “rulemaking will foster predictability and consistency regarding determinations of joint-employer status in a variety of business relationships.” At base, the Notice is an attempt to return the Board to its pre-2015 standard, which the Obama-era NLRB overruled in the controversial Browning-Ferris decision issued that year.

If enacted, the rules would provide a stronger degree of clarity and predictability to business owners and tighten the standard for finding one business to be a joint employer of another employer’s employees. Moreover, by enacting the standard through rulemaking, rather than adjudication, the NLRB decreases the likelihood of the standard being overturned by a later Board. Continue reading →