Emily Miller is a student at Harvard Law School.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Department of Labor plans to roll out a new pilot program next month in which employers may avoid civil penalties for wage and hour violations in exchange for voluntarily reporting their infractions to the federal government. Under the program, which is expected to run for a six month trial period, employers would still owe any back wages to employees who were underpaid, and any employee who accepted back wages would waive their right to sue their employer for the violation. Although DOL has argued that such a program will encourage voluntary auditing by employers and facilitate compliance with the law, the program faces opposition from the National Employment Law Project; Judi Conti, the federal advocacy coordinator for NELP called it a “get out of jail free card” for employers.
The nation’s labor unions are finding themselves at the center of next week’s special election for Pennsylvania’s 18th District, according to the Boston Herald. The election will be the first of several in 2018 to test whether the Democratic Party can regain the support of working class voters such as those in the Distract, which Donald Trump won by 20 percentage points. President Trump will be speaking to the voters this Saturday, just days after he announced his plan to impose a steel tariff to save the domestic steel industry. Before Trump won the election in 2016, the region, which has over 17,000 steelworkers, had voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012.
Yesterday, United Airlines announced that they would “press the pause button” on proposed changes to their compensation plan in response to an outcry from United employees who signed online petitions protesting the changes. Last week, United announced they would be replacing employees’ quarterly incentive payments with the chance to enter a lottery in which workers, selected at random, could receive cash or other prizes. United’s prior, incentive-based program, rewarded flight attendants, pilots, and gate agents for meeting certain goals, while the lottery based program would reward far fewer employees, selected at random from a list of those with perfect attendance.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
July 11
Regional director orders election without Board quorum; 9th Circuit pauses injunction on Executive Order; Driverless car legislation in Massachusetts
July 10
Wisconsin Supreme Court holds UW Health nurses are not covered by Wisconsin’s Labor Peace Act; a district judge denies the request to stay an injunction pending appeal; the NFLPA appeals an arbitration decision.
July 9
the Supreme Court allows Trump to proceed with mass firings; Secretary of Agriculture suggests Medicaid recipients replace deported migrant farmworkers; DHS ends TPS for Nicaragua and Honduras
July 8
In today’s news and commentary, Apple wins at the Fifth Circuit against the NLRB, Florida enacts a noncompete-friendly law, and complications with the No Tax on Tips in the Big Beautiful Bill. Apple won an appeal overturning a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision that the company violated labor law by coercively questioning an employee […]
July 7
LA economy deals with fallout from ICE raids; a new appeal challenges the NCAA antitrust settlement; and the EPA places dissenting employees on leave.
July 6
Municipal workers in Philadelphia continue to strike; Zohran Mamdani collects union endorsements; UFCW grocery workers in California and Colorado reach tentative agreements.