The NLRB ruled on Thursday that the Teamsters Local 385 in Orlando violated federal labor law by ignoring Walt Disney World employees’ requests to leave the union. According to The Associated Press, the NLRB’s decision required More »
Both chambers of the Massachusetts state legislature have passed a “grand bargain” bill that — if signed by Governor Charlie Baker — will increase the minimum wage for most workers from $11/hour to $15/hour over the course of five years and will increase the minimum wage for tipped workers from $3.75 to $6.75 over the same time period. If signed, this bill will also grant workers thro... More »
This morning the White House plans to announce a proposal to merge the Departments of Labor and Education. The idea is just the latest iteration of a decades-long conservative effort to downsize the federal government, but an early step in a broader restructuring planned under the current administration. Any merger would require congressional approval, however, and previous proposals to eliminat... More »
Immigrant workers’ groups, led by the Domestic Workers Alliance, are organizing nationwide protests to end family separation at the border. Outrage escalated this week as Border Patrol separated thousands of children, including toddlers, from parents seeking asylum — with few plan to reunite them. As audio and photos emerge of children held in cages and tent camps, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigra... More »
In the wake of the Epic Systems decision, U.S. companies are flocking to include forced arbitration and class action waiver clauses in their contracts. Attorney Ron Chapman of Ogletree Deakins helped create an arbitration clause generator on his firm’s website that went live soon after the ruling. “A lot of companies were waiting on the Supreme Court to see whether it was permissible... More »
A new report shows that workers paid the minimum wage can’t afford a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the U.S., the Hill reports. The report, released by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, concludes that even the newly popular $15 an hour minimum wage would not cover the cost of rent for a “decent” two-bedroom apartment in most states. The study defined an affordable apa... More »
NLRB Chairman John Ring recently wrote a letter to Senators Warren, Gillibrand, and Sanders defending the Board’s decision to move forward with rule-making to modify its joint employer standard. In his letter, Ring repeats w... More »
The Harvard Law Review dedicated its latest issue to Judge Reinhardt and published a series of In Memoriam pieces about the Judge. The series is available here. My own contribution focused on Rizo v. Yovino, the Equal Pay Act case that Judge Reinhardt authored and that was issued by the ninth circuit shortly after his death. The piece uses Rizo to highlight some characteristic features of the Judg... More »
Some of the hottest questions in labor policy over the past few years have been: how big is the “gig economy” or the “fissured workplace” or the “on-demand sector”? The Bureau of Labor Statistics gave its surprising answer t... More »
Justice Gorsuch’s silence during the Janus oral argument generated considerable buzz. Wishful (yet tentative) commentators hoped the silence was a sign that the new Justice’s originalism would lead him to uphold Abood. To b... More »