A recent Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals three-judge panel enforced part and declined to enforce another part of an NLRB ruling that an employer violated the National Labor Relations Act by telling employees that the union’s...more
6/24/2025
/ Appeals ,
Employer Rights ,
Employment Litigation ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Judicial Authority ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Unions
On May 5, 2025, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development opened a 60-day comment period on a proposed regulation that would make it harder for independent contractors to contract their services as...more
By Executive Order dated March 27, 2025, entitled, “Exclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs,” President Trump moved to end collective bargaining with unions at 18 federal agencies and urged them to void...more
4/14/2025
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Employment Litigation ,
Executive Orders ,
Government Agencies ,
Labor Relations ,
National Security ,
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ,
Public Employees ,
Trump Administration ,
Unions
In a split decision, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the District Court and ruled that President Trump is not obligated for now to reinstate fired National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board...more
In an emphatic decision, Federal Court Judge Beryl Howell of the District of Columbia District ordered President Trump to reinstate NLRB Member Gwynne A. Wilcox to her Board seat. The President fired Wilcox, asserting unitary...more
President Trump’s February 18th Executive Order entitled, “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies,” represents a sweeping effort to consolidate federal executive branch lawmaking power with the President. The Order’s...more
2/26/2025
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) ,
Executive Orders ,
FCC ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
NLRB ,
Nuclear Regulatory Commission ,
OIRA ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Trump Administration
On Valentine’s Day, the Acting NLRB General Counsel, William B. Cowen, delivered a greeting card of sorts to his staff and the public signaling a new direction for the agency....more
2/24/2025
/ Cemex ,
Employees ,
Employment Litigation ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Labor Reform ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Presidential Appointments ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Unions
As part of the Presidential Executive Order entitled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit Based Opportunity,” federal agencies must advise every potential federal contractor and grant recipient that a material...more
This past week, employers received two reprieves from mandatory conditions before winning federal contracts. On January 21, 2025, Federal Claims Court Judge Ryan T. Holte ruled that President Biden’s 2022 Executive Order that...more
1/28/2025
/ Civil Rights Act ,
COFC ,
Construction Contracts ,
Construction Industry ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
OFCCP ,
Project Labor Agreements ,
Unions
On New Year’s Eve, the union attempting to organize Dartmouth College's men’s basketball team dropped its NLRB case after winning a groundbreaking decision in February 2024 from a NLRB Regional Director who decided that the...more
1/8/2025
/ College Athletes ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employee Definition ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Labor Relations ,
Misclassification ,
NCAA ,
NLRB ,
Student Athletes ,
Union Elections ,
Unions
On December 10, 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden, sitting in the District of Columbia, ruled that the job protections afforded NLRB Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) are unconstitutional because they impede the...more
On November 15, a U.S. District Court in Texas put the brakes on the Department of Labor’s April 2024 Rule designed to make more employees eligible for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. State of Texas v. United...more
11/21/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
The Presidential Election is upon us with many indicators predicting a close election. The two candidates and their respective party platforms offer opposing views on many major issues. ...more
10/30/2024
/ Biden Administration ,
Employment Policies ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Joint Employers ,
Kamala Harris ,
NLRB ,
Political Candidates ,
Presidential Elections ,
Section 7 ,
Trump Administration ,
Union Elections ,
Unions
Now that the ILA short-lived but eventful strike is over, it is important to understand what this strike and the two noteworthy strikes of last year by the Autoworkers and the Actors-Writers have in common and what we might...more
On October 7, 2024, NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo announced to her staff and the public that she intends to prosecute employers for “Stay-or-Pay” employment agreements, agreements that require a new employee to repay...more
There has been much speculation about how much deference the courts will give to federal administrative agencies,’ including the NLRB’s, statutory interpretations in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June Loper Bright decision...more
8/28/2024
/ Administrative Appeals ,
Administrative Procedure Act ,
Chevron Deference ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Government Agencies ,
Judicial Authority ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
NLRB ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Unions
On June 28, 2024 the Supreme Court overruled the 40-year-old landmark ruling known as Chevron, a doctrine of administrative law that has until now required courts to defer to federal agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous...more
7/10/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Chevron Deference ,
Government Agencies ,
Judicial Authority ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Magnuson-Moss Act ,
NLRB ,
Relentless Inc v US Department of Commerce ,
SCOTUS ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) ,
Unions
The National Labor Relations Act gives employees the right to engage in activities together with and on behalf of their co-workers to improve working conditions, called protected concerted activity. The question frequently...more