With the new make-up of the NLRB resulting in three Republicans sitting on the Board there is no doubt in my mind that the Specialty Healthcare standard in determining appropriate bargaining units will be one of the first of the “new standards” to disappear.

Imagine: in a region where hiring and retaining competent employees is becoming increasingly difficult, a multi-national company announces it will build a plant and employ more than 10,000 workers over the next few years. The pressure to get and keep your best employee has just increased, and the ripple effect touches every aspect of this competitive employment situation. Seeking to maintain your competitive position at a time when employees are being wooed to leave, you may want to explore using noncompetition and nonsolicitation agreements, but are they enforceable? What happens when a well-qualified employee applies for an open position, but informs you that she signed a noncompetition, nondisclosure agreement with her current employer? How will that impact your hiring decision?

On August 7, 2017, a Fifth Circuit panel ruled, in a divided decision, that a class-action waiver can be enforceable even without an arbitration agreement being involved. In that case, the Convergys Corporation required its applicants to sign a class-action waiver even though it was not contained in an arbitration agreement. The Convergys Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling rejected a NLRB decision holding that the company cannot require its job applicants to sign class action waivers that prevent them from suing the company.

For many of us who have been watching the changes made in various administrative agencies the appointments by President Trump to fill the two empty positions on the NLRB is a key start in making changes in a number of over-reaching decisions during the Obama administration. With the changeover to a new General Counsel in…

On May 30, 2017, Governor Eric Greitens signed the Fairness in Public Construction Act, SB 182, into law.  The Bill was introduced by Senator and Assistant Majority Leader, Bob Ondear and modifies Missouri’s law relating to project labor agreements (“PLAs”).

Under the current law, the State or any agency or political subdivision of the…

The National Labor Relations Board issued an Order on May 3, 2017 in which it made clear that the Board does not wish to exercise its discretionary authority to expand Weingarten Rights to non-union employees via rule making.  The potential for the expansion of the Weingarten Rights to non-union employees has been in place ever…

Several recent updates regarding the new Department of Labor (DOL) fiduciary rule have caused confusion for our clients. On March 1, 2017, the DOL announced a proposed delay of the new fiduciary rule and prohibited transaction exemptions that were set to become applicable on April 10, 2017. The DOL requested that all comments on the…

Employers subject to a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) must proceed cautiously in determining how to handle dues checkoff and employee communications following implementation of any right-to-work laws. A recent decision by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) declares that contractual dues checkoff provisions are not union security devices and…