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NLRB Strikes Down AmEx Arbitration Policy

Randi Klein Hyatt
Randi Klein Hyatt
11/13/2015
Labor Law
A recent decision from the NLRB demonstrates that even cleverly worded arbitration and class action policies are going to be a tough sell to the Board. In Amex Card Services Company, NLRB Case no. 28-CA-123865, American Express required all new hires, and employees hired after June 1, 2003, to agree to resolve any employment-related dispute by arbitration, and to refrain from engaging in any class, representative or collective action. These...
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Federal Appeals Court Affirms NLRB Decision Striking Down Employer Policies

Randi Klein Hyatt
Randi Klein Hyatt
11/11/2015
Labor Law
By now, most employers know that the NLRB is cracking down on’ practices and policies that could interfere with employees’ rights to engage in "protected concerted activity" under the NLRA. Unfortunately, as the Board continues to expand the scope of its decisions, many employers (and lawyers) are forced to play catch-up and revise policies.   A recent case from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia  is a lesson in...
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Employee Facebook Activity Not Disloyal Enough To Be Grounds For Valid Discharge

Clifford Geiger
Clifford Geiger
10/22/2015
Labor Law
The Second Circuit recently affirmed a National Labor Relations Board (Board) decision that Triple Play Sports Bar and Grille illegally fired two employees for Facebook posts about their employer’s handling of payroll tax withholding. Three D, LLC v. NLRB, 2d Cir., No. 14-3284, 10/21/15. In a Facebook status update a former employee posted “[m]aybe someone should do the owners of Triple Play a favor and buy it from them. They can’t even do the...
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Democrats Propose Major Overhaul of Federal Labor Laws

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
10/08/2015
Labor Law, Legislative Developments
In the past several weeks, Democratic leaders in Washington have proposed a a series of dramatic changes to federal labor laws intended to make it easier for labor unions to organize workers. On September 16, 2015, Senator Patty Murray (Wa.) and Representative Bobby Scott  (Va.) introduced the "Workplace Action for a Growing Economy" (WAGE) Act (H.R. 4514; S.2042).  The legislation would amend the National Labor Relations Act to allow workers to...
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Obama NLRB Overhauls “Joint Employer” Standard

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
09/01/2015
Agency Activity, Labor Law
In a move less surprising for its outcome than the breadth of its likely effects, President Obama’s NLRB adopted, by a 3-2 vote, a new standard for joint employers in Browning-Ferris Industries. Case 32-RC-109684 (Aug. 27, 2015). The aftershocks of the Board’s decision, which overturned three decades of stable case law, may very well revamp the landscape of collective bargaining. Section 8(a)(5) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)...
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NLRB Sends Northwestern Players Union to the Bench

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
08/19/2015
Labor Law
The highly publicized effort by Northwestern University's football players to form a union  was thrown for a big loss this week when the NLRB unanimously dismissed the union's representation petition.  Northwestern Univ.,  362 N.L.R.B. No. 167 (8/17/15).  Reversing the March 2014  decision of the NLRB Regional Director in Chicago, the full Board found that the control the NCAA and athletic conferences such as the Big 10  exerts over...
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NLRB Has Jurisdiction Over Little River Band

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
06/11/2015
Labor Law
For those of us of a certain age, the “Little River Band” conjures memories of a ‘70’s light rock band and the song “Reminiscing.” And yes, they are still touring (they will be in Annapolis, Maryland in November). But that is not this case. We’re talking here about a Sixth Circuit decision, 2-1, that held the NLRA applies to a Michigan casino run by a Native American tribe on Indian land that employs mostly people who are not tribal...
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NLRB ISSUES COMPLAINT AGAINST HOSPITAL FOR SCHEDULING ITS OWN EMPLOYEES

Peter Saucier
Peter Saucier
06/05/2015
Agency Activity, Labor Law
One thing about which unions and employers ordinarily agree is that it is the right and obligation of management to manage. Employers want to manage and unions want to retain the right to claim that the employer did not manage when it should have done so. That makes a recent decision by the NLRB to issue a complaint against a hospital interesting. Armstrong County Memorial Hospital, No. 6-CA-144586, complaint issued 5/27/15. In 2014, licensed...
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NLRB Strikes Down Employer's "No-Button" Rule

Randi Klein Hyatt
Randi Klein Hyatt
05/11/2015
Agency Activity, Labor Law, Social Media
Another day, another employer policy that violates employees’ Section 7 rights. In this case, Boch Imports, Inc. and International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, case 01-CA-083551, the Board was asked to review an employer’s social media policy and prohibition against certain clothing and pins. Not surprisingly, the Board found these actions impermissibly restrained employees’ rights to discuss the terms and conditions of...
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F*** My Boss; F*** his mother; F*** his family… Fuggetaboutit

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
04/07/2015
Labor Law, Social Media, Union Activity
So, what’s the big deal?   That doesn’t get you fired. At least that’s what the NLRB says. As long as you say it on Facebook during a union campaign. And you’re a union supporter. And you add “Vote YES for the union.” Pier Sixty, LLC, 362 NLRB No. 59 (March 31, 2015). Hernan Perez worked for Pier Sixty, a catering company in New York City. Some employees wanted a union, “in part because of concerns that management repeatedly treated...
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