By Alex Meier & Cary Reid Burke
The National Labor Relations Board moved from theory to practice in this administration’s battle against restrictive covenants. Recently, the Regional Director of Region 9 of the National Labor Relations Board filed a consolidated complaint alleging that certain restrictive covenants contained in offer letters and policies in an employee
By: Molly Gabel and Rachael Reed
On August 31, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board’s Democratic majority issued a decision in American Federation for Children, Inc. The ruling expands the scope of activities protected by Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to include statutory employees’ efforts to advocate for nonemployees. To reach
By: Sul Ah Kim and Cary R. Burke
Earlier this week, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) overturned established precedent and held that a facially neutral work rule is presumptively unlawful if a “reasonable” employee predisposed to engaging in protected concerted activity could interpret the rule to have a “coercive meaning.” Stericycle, Inc.
By: Elliot Fink and Cary Burke
Seyfarth Synopsis: In The Atlanta Opera, 372 NLRB 95 (2023), the National Labor Relations Board overturned Trump-era precedent by modifying its independent contractor test and returning to the test announced by the Obama Board. The NLRB now will review a multitude of enumerated and non-enumerated factors when determining
By: Saman Haque and Cary Burke
Seyfarth Synopsis: Recently, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), issued a decision in two cases that create the opportunity for the National Labor Relations Act to have a more expansive view of what constitutes protected activity. The ALJ’s decision could also provide employees an expanded definition of protected activity by
By: Michael Berkheimer, Elliot Fink, and Jennifer Mora
On June 1, 2023, in a resounding 8-1 decision, the United States Supreme Court granted employers an important victory by holding that the National Labor Relations Act and prior precedent did not preempt a state court tort action against a labor organization that sanctioned a
By: Cary Burke, Sul Ah Kim, and Olivia Jenkins
Seyfarth Synopsis: Recently, the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision that grants employees broad leeway to make lewd, lascivious, racist, or otherwise inappropriate comments at work, so long as those comments are connected in some way to wages, hours, terms and conditions of
By: Grayson Moronta, Glenn Smith, and Howard Wexler
Seyfarth Synopsis: On April 24, 2023, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, signed A4772/S3215, which addresses unemployment insurance (“UI”) benefits for workers during labor disputes, including strikes.
A4772/S3215 (the “Bill”) amends existing law, now allowing UI benefits to be distributed to workers during an employer lockout
By Cary Burke
On April 4, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board signaled that it might allow employees to recover damages stemming from employers refusing to follow bargaining orders pending appeal. In Hudson Institute of Process Research, 372 NLRB No. 73 (April 4, 2023), the Board ruled that the employer unlawfully failed to
By: Ronald Kramer and Seong Kim
Seyfarth Synopsis: Another court has found that actuaries who set discount rates for withdrawal liability purposes that are not based upon their “best estimate of anticipated experience” for investments under the plan—in this case, basing the rate assumption only on estimated returns for 40% of the Plan’s assets in