I’ve been writing this blog for so long that at the time I started, podcasts weren’t really a thing. (Neither were law blogs, but that’s a different post.)

Last year, my colleague Gabe Jiran hosted a season of From Lawyer to Employer — a new podcast at my firm, Shipman & Goodwin. The first season

As I continue to highlight some important employment law developments from this summer, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) caused a mild stir for employment law lawyers when it issued a decision in Stericycle, Inc.

This ruling introduces a fresh legal standard for assessing employers’ workplace policies and rules, with far-reaching implications for businesses

The legislative session wrapped up last week and if you were on the lookout for lots of new employment law-related measures, you were likely to have been disappointed.

Despite serious changes to the state’s non-compete laws being discussed as well as expansion of the state’s paid leave laws having passed a committee, only a handful

Last week, the NLRB issued a landmark decision in McLaren Macomb that is already shaking up how private employers (both unionized and non-unionized) should consider severance agreements.

My colleagues have the full recap of the decision over at our sister blog, Employment Law Letter, from Friday and I highly recommend reading that first.

The key

Back in May, I talked about “The New Digital Campaign for Your Company’s Workers” which challenged readers to gauge their familiarity with TikTok trends and which tried to highlight how unions are using newer social media platforms for their campaigns.

Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with the ProjectHR podcast about this very topic. 

It would be easy to say that the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday has nothing to do with the workplace and therefore presents no employment law issues.

But such an approach would not only be foolish, it would be wrong.

The full impact of the decision will be felt for an entire generation while a full analysis of the decision’s impact will take some more time too (though my partners have done a great job with one here).  But it’s apparent from the first few reads of the Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is that it presents a real challenge for employers and is so disruptive in so many ways both for employers and employees.

First, the decision minimizes (at best) or ignores (at worst) the concept of “stare decisis” which is that the Court’s prior decisions become binding precedent — and therefore have meaning.  People can rely on those decisions to predict what will happen next and respect the decision once it gets made.  If the Court undermines that concept, it risks becoming exactly like the much maligned National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB is a federal agency that, some would argue, changes its mind depending on how the Board is composed (whether Democrat majority or Republican).  For example of such a flip flop, see one of my prior posts about the NLRB here.

This is not a good thing; the Rule of Law depends on people having some faith in the institution itself.  If people think the system is rigged to whatever party is in power, then the more likely they will be to minimize its importance or keep fighting until they think the system is in their favor.  Stare Decisis provided some measure of comfort to parties and gave employers the opportunity to plan for the future.Continue Reading Dobbs and the Impact of the Court’s Decision for Employers

With union organizing efforts making headlines at Amazon and Starbucks, a new bill in Connecticut is designed to make it even easier for unions to win organizing votes.

A bill banning so-called “captive audience” meetings won final approval from the Connecticut General Assembly late Friday; it moves to the Governor’s office where his approval

The “short” session of the Connecticut General Assembly is wrapping up early next month so it’s a good opportunity to take a peek at the items that are still in contention for passage this term.  Many of the bills that are still being considered relate to the “labor” side of Labor & Employment Law.  Here

Well, it’s over.

Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States effective January 20, 2021.

For employers, the last several years have been filled with several retreats from existing policies.   And over the last year in particular, the Trump administration was busy rolling out new regulations for employers to follow.  It’s not