Unions (labor relations)

Supreme Court: President Obama botched those NLRB recess appointments

June 27, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Supreme Court.jpg In a unanimous opinion delivered yesterday (here) in NLRB v. Noel Canning, the Supreme Court concluded that President Obama’s so-called “recess appointments” of three of the five members of the National Labor Relations Board between the Senate’s January 3 and January 6 pro forma sessions were unconstitutional.

Amy Howe from SCOTUSblog.com summarized the decision “in plain english”:

“[A]ny recess that is shorter than three days is not long enough to make a recess appointment necessary. And a recess that is longer than three days but shorter than ten days will, in the normal case, also be too short to necessitate a recess appointment.”

Apparently, you can curse your boss out and still keep your job

June 12, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

What with me gabbing on about firefighters afraid of fighting fires, butt grabs, and some Delaware lawyer starving himself over social media, I missed this National Labor Relations Board decision, in which the Board basically held that, as long as you don’t go too far and pull a Latrell Sprewell, you can curse out your boss with impunity.

Literally, you can call your boss a “f*%king crook,” an “a$$hole,” and “stupid” on a Friday, and still have a job to come back to on Monday.

God bless America.

ALJ strikes social media policy disclaimer for work-related speech

April 24, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

How many of you have social media policies, which contain a provision that reads something like this…

“If you identify yourself as an associate of the Company and publish any work-related information online, you must use this disclaimer: ‘The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent the positions, strategies or opinions of the Company.'”

Yeah, I write these disclaimers all the time for clients. Apparently, they’re unlawful.

Employment Law Blog Carnival – Pick Your Holiday Edition

April 17, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

The third week of April ushers in several holidays: Passover, Good Friday, Easter.

But no matter what your religion or god — even a sacrilicious ceiling waffle — we can all agree that the Employment Law Blog Carnival, which you can find this month at Tim Eavenson’s blog: Current Employment, is the workplace glory.

This month, Tim has more posts about HR-compliance than you can count on your ten fingers. So raise your hands up to the sky and shout Hosanna! The power of the #ELBC compels you!

About last night…

March 28, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Sorry, gang. Last night was my fantasy baseball auction. And I got home hella-late. So, no post today.

Ahhhhhh, I can’t totally leave you hangin’. So, you can read about how the University of Northwestern football team can now organize and form a union (here), or you can grade my fantasy baseball team (right) in the comments below.

Oh, no. Meyer’s slacking. Let the unsubscribes begin!

Wages aren’t confidential, you guys. Your employees can discuss them.

March 27, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Over the past several years, seemingly, we’re seen the NLRB take a more active interest in employee handbooks.

We’ve certainly seen it with respect to social media policies; especially, where these policies purport to limit the rights of employees to discuss their employment with one another. This is because Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act allows employees to discuss their terms and conditions of employment together.

And you don’t need to have a union either. The act applies in most every private-sector workplace.

This may just be the greatest union-avoidance banner evah!

March 21, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Yesterday, I read with interest Jon Hyman’s post at the Ohio Employer’s Law Blog about how Target has employed a 14-minute training video to help keep its workplace union free. Gawker has posted a copy of the video here. Like a bear crapping in the woods, Gawker pokes fun of the Target video. Cheesiness aside, I find it to be pretty effective.

But Target ain’t got nothing on Subaru of Wichita. (h/t Jeff Nowak)

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NLRB renews its effort to expedite union elections

February 6, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Back in 2011, the National Labor Relations Board tried to pass certain rules that would have changed the union-election process in eight ways:

Allow for electronic filing of election petitions and other documents.

Ensure that employees, employers and unions receive and exchange timely information they need to understand and participate in the representation case process.

Employers may force employees not to file class actions

December 4, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

As my buddy Rubo used to say: “It’s like school on Saturday; no class.”

Read all about it — yesterday’s BIG federal appellate court decision; not my buddy — after the jump…

New PA bill would make the Commonwealth a right-to-work state

October 2, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Before I get into the this new bill, let’s clear up a popular misconception: David Hasselhoff lives in my basement rent-free right-to-work means that an employee can be fired at any time for any non-discriminatory reason. No, dudes. That’s called at-will employment.

Right-to-work laws give individual employees in a unionized workplace the right not to join or financially support the union. 24 states, plus Guam, have passed right-to-work laws. Absent a right-to-work law, all employees in a collective bargaining unit must join the union and pay union dues.

And Pennsylvania could be next.