Joint-Employer Rule Faces Early Legal Hurdle

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
11/16/2023
In September 2022, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) proposed a new rule to determine joint-employer status.  The new rule, adopted in October 2023, will take effect on December 26, 2023, and be applied prospectively.[1] One of the more controversial aspects of the new rule is that it removes the requirement that a putative employer actually exercise control over those essential terms and conditions of employment.[2]  In fact, an employer...
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EEOC Files Amicus Brief In Support Of Religious Accommodations For Refusing Mandatory Covid-19 Vaccinations

In a recent amicus brief filed in the 8th Circuit, the EEOC has urged heightened protections for workers who object to mandatory vaccinations due to sincerely-held religious beliefs.  The EEOC's amicus brief highlights the unique difficulties employers face when forced to accommodate a religious belief under Title VII. The case, Ringhofer v. Mayo Clinic Ambulance, involves two longtime employees who worked as a paramedic and registered nurse for...
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The Independent Contractor Conundrum: Make Sure Your Workers Are Classified Correctly

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
11/04/2023
A few claims have come across my desk lately that boil down to one issue: misclassified independent contractors.  In each case, the employer has classified a worker as an independent contractor but the realities of the relationship show the worker should have actually been classified (and paid) as an employee.  The result is a claim of unpaid wages and/or overtime.  The issue often arises after a seemingly happy worker leaves the business or...
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has a New I-9 Form. Is Your Business I-9 Compliant?

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
11/02/2023
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) issued a new I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification Form on August 1, 2023.  Effective November 1, 2023, businesses should now be using this new simplified form for all new and re-hire employees.  Instructions for the form can also be found on USCIS’s website.  With this new form, we are providing a refresher on what businesses must do in order to remain compliant. What Is An I-9...
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NLRB Issues New Joint Employer Rule

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) released today its Final Rule regarding the Standard for Determining Joint-Employer Status under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).  The NLRB press release states: Under the new standard, an entity may be considered a joint employer of a group of employees if each entity has an employment relationship with the employees and they share or codetermine one or more of the employees’ essential terms and...
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No Protected Activity, No Retaliation Claim

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
10/24/2023
Title VII’s anti-retaliation provision prohibits discrimination (retaliation) against employees and applicants because the individual “has opposed any practice made an unlawful employment practice by [Title VII], or because he has made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under [Title VII].”  42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3(a).  Employees and applicants who oppose discrimination...
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NLRB Releases Filing Statistics for FY 2023

Vincent Jackson
Vincent Jackson
10/19/2023
The National Labor Relations Board released case processing data for FY 2023.  The data shows that between October 1, 2022 and September 20, 2023, 22,448 cases were filed--a 10% increase over the previous fiscal year.  2023 also saw the highest number of cases filed since 2016. The increase in filings was spread across both unfair labor practice (ULP) charges and union representation-related activity.  Both categories of cases have seen...
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Trouble Ahead, Trouble Behind: ADA Week continued

Nearly everyone recognizes the Grateful Dead song “Casey Jones.”  It was first performed live by the Dead on June 20, 1969, at Fillmore East in New York (it’s track 8 on Workingman’s Dead).  It tells the true story of John Luther “Casey” Jones, from Cayce, Kentucky. Casey was a railroad engineer who drove a fast train and who died in 1900 when he collided with another train. A few days after the accident, Jones’s friend Wallace...
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Its Disability Employment Awareness Month

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
10/09/2023
According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM).  And 2023 is the 33d anniversary of enactment of the ADA, which was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990.  My blogs this week will focus on ADA issues. The choices are nearly limitless.  Recall that, while the ADA was the first nationwide law to apply to private and public sector employers – like Title...
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Employer’s Failure to Bargain with Union Proves Costly

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
10/05/2023
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ordered a hospital in Puerto Rico to rehire and provide back pay to eleven maintenance employees who it deemed were illegally terminated.  The September 30, 2023 decision from the three-member panel found that the employer, Metro Health, Inc. d/b/a Hospital Metropolitano Rio Piedras violated Sections 8(a)(5) and (1) by its decision to subcontract the services performed by the Environmental Control...
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