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
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April 28
WA strike bill goes to governor; MLBPA discloses legal expenses; Ex-Twitter employees seek class certification against Musk.
April 27
Judge thwarts Trump's attempt to strip federal workers' labor rights; AFGE to cut over half of its staff; Harvard unions rally amid attacks.
April 24
NLRB seeks to compel Amazon to collectively bargain with San Francisco warehouse workers, DoorDash delivery workers and members of Los Deliveristas Unidos rally for pay transparency, and NLRB takes step to drop lawsuit against SpaceX over the firing of employees who criticized Elon Musk.
April 22
DOGE staffers eye NLRB for potential reorganization; attacks on federal workforce impact Trump-supporting areas; Utah governor acknowledges backlash to public-sector union ban
April 21
Bryan Johnson’s ULP saga before the NLRB continues; top law firms opt to appease the EEOC in its anti-DEI demands.
April 20
In today’s news and commentary, the Supreme Court rules for Cornell employees in an ERISA suit, the Sixth Circuit addresses whether the EFAA applies to a sexual harassment claim, and DOGE gains access to sensitive labor data on immigrants. On Thursday, the Supreme Court made it easier for employees to bring ERISA suits when their […]