Tag Archives: National Labor Relations Board

August 24, 2016

What the NLRB’s Ruling That Graduate Teaching Assistants Are Employees, With the Rights to Organize and Bargain Collectively Means for Employers

By Steven M. Swirsky of Epstein Becker & Green

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) has ruled that graduate teaching assistants, i.e. graduate students who provide instruction and assist faculty with research as part of their own post-graduate education are “employees” within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or Act), and thus have the right to join unions and engage in collective bargaining with the universities and colleges where they study.

For those who follow the Board, the 3-1 decision in Columbia University in, 364 NLRB No. 90 (2016) should come as no surprise. This past January, following a Regional Director’s Decision dismissing the representation petition filed by Graduate Workers of Columbia-GWC, UAW, (UAW or Union) because she found that under Board law, the graduate teaching assistants and research assistants the union sought to represent, were not employees as that term has been defined under the Act, but rather were students.

Posted in Legal Updates | North America
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August 9, 2016

Are You a Joint-Employer with Your Suppliers? NLRB Examines Corporate Social Responsibility Policies

By Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. of Epstein Becker & Green

Our colleague Steven M. Swirsky, a Member of the Firm at Epstein Becker Green, has a post on the Management Memo blog that will be of interest to many of our readers in the hospitality industry: “Can Your Corporate Social Responsibility Policy Make You a Joint-Employer With Your Suppliers? The NLRB May Find That It Does”

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August 9, 2016

Are You a Joint-Employer with Your Suppliers? NLRB Examines Corporate Social Responsibility Policies

By Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. of Epstein Becker & Green

Our colleague Steven M. Swirsky, a Member of the Firm at Epstein Becker Green, has a post on the Management Memo blog that will be of interest to many of our readers in the health care industry: “Can Your Corporate Social Responsibility Policy Make You a Joint-Employer With Your Suppliers? The NLRB May Find That It Does”

Following is an excerpt:

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board), which continues to apply an ever expanding standard for determining whether a company that contracts with another business to supply contract labor or services in support of its operations should be treated as a joint employer of the supplier or contractor’s employees, is now considering whether a company’s requirement that its suppliers and contractors comply with its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Policy, which includes minimum standards for the contractor or supplier’s practices with its own employees can support a claim that the customer is a joint employer. …

Posted in Legal Updates | North America
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August 4, 2016

Can Your Corporate Social Responsibility Policy Make You a Joint-Employer With Your Suppliers? The NLRB May Find That It Does

By Steven M. Swirsky of Epstein Becker & Green

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board), which continues to apply an ever expanding standard for determining whether a company that contracts with another business to supply contract labor or services in support of its operations should be treated as a joint employer of the supplier or contractor’s employees, is now considering whether a company’s requirement that its suppliers and contractors comply with its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Policy, which includes minimum standards for the contractor or supplier’s practices with its own employees can support a claim that the customer is a joint employer.

Posted in Legal Updates | North America
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July 12, 2016

NLRB Multiplies Impact of Expanded Joint Employer Test: Requires Bargaining in Combined Units Across Multiple Employers

By Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. of Epstein Becker & Green

Our colleagues Adam C. Abrahms and Steven M. Swirsky, attorneys at Epstein Becker Green, have a post on the Management Memo blog that will be of interest to many of our readers in the retail industry: “NLRB Drops Other Shoe on Temporary/Contract Employee Relationships: Ruling Will Require Bargaining In Combined Units Including Employees of Multiple Employers – Greatly Multiplies Impact of BFI Expanded Joint Employer Test.”

Posted in Legal Updates | North America
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July 12, 2016

NLRB Drops Other Shoe on Temporary/Contract Employee Relationships: Ruling Will Require Bargaining In Combined Units Including Employees Of Multiple Employers – Greatly Multiplies Impact of BFI Expanded Joint Employer Test

By Adam C. Abrahms and Steven M. Swirsky of Epstein Becker & Green

The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) announced in its 3-1 decision in Miller & Anderson, 364 NLRB #39 (2016) that it will now conduct representation elections and require collective bargaining in single combined units composed of what it refers to as “solely employed employees” and “jointly employed employees,” meaning that two separate employers will be required to join together to bargain over such employees’ terms and conditions of employment.” To understand the significance of Miller & Anderson, one must consider the Board’s August 2015 decision in Browning Ferris Industries (“BFI”), in which the Board adopted a new and far more relaxed standard for holding two entities to be joint employers.

Posted in Legal Updates | North America
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July 5, 2016

Supreme Court Agrees to Review D.C. Circuit’s Decision That Former NLRB Acting General Counsel Served in Violation of Federal Law

By Laura C. Monaco of Epstein Becker & Green

Supreme Court Agrees to Review D.C. Circuit’s Decision That Former NLRB Acting General Counsel Served in Violation of Federal Law

On June 20, 2016, the United States Supreme Court granted a request by the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) to review a decision from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that the Board’s former Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon served in violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 3345, et seq. (“FVRA”) when he remained in that position after President Barack Obama nominated him to permanently fill the General Counsel role.

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June 8, 2016

Seventh Circuit Creates Split on Class Waivers – Employment Law This Week

By Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. of Epstein Becker & Green

One of the top stories featured on Employment Law This Week: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has joined the National Labor Relations Board in finding that arbitration agreements containing class action waivers violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

At issue is a collective and class action by employees of Epic Systems about overtime pay. The company was seeking to dismiss the case based on a mandatory arbitration agreement that waived an employee’s right to participate in a collective or class action. Unlike the Fifth Circuit, the Seventh Circuit found that a class-action waiver like this one violates the NLRA and, because the contract is unlawful, its enforcement is not required by the Federal Arbitration Act. The Seventh Circuit’s decision creates a split in the federal circuits that means that the U.S. Supreme Court will likely weigh in on the issue.

Posted in Legal Updates | North America
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June 6, 2016

NLRB Curtails Employers’ Right to Hire Permanent Replacements for Strikers – Bolsters Unions’ Ability to Use Intermittent Strikes

By Steven M. Swirsky of Epstein Becker & Green

NLRB Curtails Employers’ Right to Hire Permanent Replacements for Strikers – Bolsters Unions’ Ability to Use Intermittent Strikes

The National Labor Relations Board, in a 2-1 decision by Chairman Mark Pearce and Member Kent Hirozawa, in American Baptist Homes of the West, 364 NLRB No. 13, has adopted a new standard for considering the legality of an employer’s hiring of permanent replacements in response to economic strikes. The decision, in the words of Member Philip Miscimarra’s dissent, is not only a “deformation of Board precedent,” but “a substantial rearrangement of the competing interests balanced by Congress when it chose to protect various economic weapons, including the hiring of permanent replacements.”

Posted in Legal Updates | North America
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June 2, 2016

Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Sides with NLRB on Class Action Waivers and Mandatory Arbitration

By Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. of Epstein Becker & Green

Our colleague Steven M. Swirsky, a Member of the Firm at Epstein Becker Green, has a post on the Management Memo blog that will be of interest to many of our readers in the retail industry: “Federal Appeals Court Sides with NLRB – Holds Arbitration Agreement and Class Action Waiver Violates Employee Rights and Unenforceable.”

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