The U.S. Department of Labor has released their annual statistics on labor union membership. Nationwide, union membership is down slightly by .2 percent. In total, about 11 percent of the workforce belongs to a union. Compared to 2008, when I reported on these statistics, the number is down by a full percentage point.
The
Late yesterday, Twitter lit up with news that collegiate student athletes are really “employees”. But beyond the headline, my colleague Jarad Lucan explains what REALLY happened in plain English. Suffice to say, even though it’s March Madness, you might not want to bet on that result just yet.
Many of you may remember a few
You might wonder why certain employers aren’t unionized. There are many factors, of course, but one of them is a keen awareness by the employer of the risks that are out there.
Target is one of those employers.
Earlier this week, Gawker acquired one of the videos that Target uses to educate its workforce on
Last Friday, lawyers representing two government officials petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments over whether former a 2002 state decision to layoff only union personnel violated those employee’s constitutional rights.
Back in June 2013, you may recall that the Second Circuit ruled that such layoffs did violate the right of association. I’ve
So, your employees are all paid at least minimum wage and overtime. You’re good, right?
Not necessarily, as a recent column in the Connecticut Law Tribune points out. You might need to pay a “prevailing” wage — if you have a contract with the State of Connecticut.
Indeed, as many companies who do business
A while back, the NLRB proposed that all employers would need to put up posters detailing employee rights to form a union. If employers did not, then the employers could be subjected to an unfair labor practice charge — a serious charge.
Implementation of that rule was delayed pending court challenges.
This morning, the
As I indicated a few weeks ago, one of the goals of this blog this year is to stop chasing headlines. The latest story about the NLRB demonstrates why.
Late last month, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals (which, as you might imagine, only covers Washington D.C.) ruled that recess appointments to the NLRB were invalid, calling into question dozens of decisions by the NLRB. The case, Canning v. NLRB, is not a light read; it’s nearly 50 pages long.
(As an aside, this recess decision should not be confused with the Connecticut General Assembly’s attempt to have labor law taught in the schools, presumably after recess.)
Unfortunately, the first instinct of some employment law blogs was to treat this decision as some type of watershed moment in history without providing the context for private employers — particularly those without unions.
A notable exception was a thoughtful post by the Employer Law Report which was quick to note that “since the various appeals courts are not bound to adopt each other’s opinions, the impact will depend on where the NLRB’s decisions are being challenged and how those courts rule.”
For employers in Connecticut — which falls within the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and not the D.C. Circuit — that means that the decision is notable, but not yet binding.
Continue Reading Should Private Employers Still Worry About Unions and What Happens at the NLRB?
Update: The NLRB has announced an indefinite postponement of the rules. See this updated post here.
Another month has passed, and we are now ever closer to the effective date of the NLRB’s new posting rules.
Thus far, many of the legal challenges to the
Anyone who has read this blog for a while knows that I am a big fan of the Office of Legislative Research, a little-known office at the Connecticut General Assembly. They produce reports, backgrounders and items like that for legislators and release them to the public.
[caption id=”attachment_3426″ align=”alignright” width=”232″ caption=”Photo courtesy of Library
The Dog Days of Summer are officially here.
Which means slow news items in the employment law area. Oh sure, there’s the labor unions rewriting their bylaws to get the concession package passed (the equivalent of a mulligan in the Masters). But with Connecticut’s legislature done for the year and the courts