Shutdown Showdown. Rather than hurtling into a federal government shutdown, this week has been more of a slow, gradual, depressing slide into the shutdown, as it became apparent this week that last-minute measures to keep the...more
10/2/2023
/ Administrative Agencies ,
Appropriations Bill ,
Contingency Plans ,
Continuing Resolution ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Dress Codes ,
Federal Budget ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Funding ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Government Agencies ,
Government Shutdown ,
Memorandum of Understanding ,
NLRB ,
OMB ,
OSHA
The House Returns, Shutdown Looms. The U.S. House of Representatives returned this week from its August break. As the Buzz has discussed recently, the federal government appropriations process is front and center, and all...more
9/18/2023
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Congressional Committees ,
Construction Industry ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
E-Verify ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Budget ,
Government Shutdown ,
Memorandum of Understanding ,
Minimum Wage ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
Personal Protective Equipment ,
Wage and Hour
DOL Proposes Changes to Overtime Regulations. On August 30, 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it would issue a notice of proposed rulemaking to amend the regulations implementing the overtime provisions...more
9/5/2023
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Minimum Salary ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
Over-Time ,
Proposed Rules ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Safety Inspections ,
Third-Party ,
Union Elections ,
Union Representatives ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
Su Slips. Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su’s chances of becoming the actual secretary of labor continued to dwindle this week. Multiple media reports indicate that the administration is no longer pushing for Su’s...more
7/31/2023
/ Child Labor ,
Congressional Committees ,
Congressional Investigations & Hearings ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Form I-9 ,
Heat Exposure ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
Minimum Wage ,
OLMS ,
OSHA ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Wage and Hour
Su Nomination in Limbo. Late last week, Senator Joe Manchin publicly voiced his opposition to Julie Su’s nomination to be secretary of labor. ...more
Congress Returns, Works on “Must Pass” Bills. Following their Fourth of July recess, members of the U.S. Congress returned to Washington, D.C., this week and turned their attention to several “must pass” pieces of...more
7/17/2023
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Legislative Agendas ,
NDAA ,
NLRB ,
Nominations ,
OIRA ,
OSHA ,
Over-Time ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Senate Confirmation Hearings ,
Wage and Hour
West Coast Ports: Parties Reach Agreement. This week, ocean carriers and terminal operators at the twenty-nine West Coast ports in the United States announced a tentative agreement with the labor union that represents their...more
SCOTUS to Revisit Precedent on Agency Deference. This week, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) agreed to hear Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, a case that will invite the Court to overrule its 1984 decision...more
5/8/2023
/ Arbitration ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Employee Misconduct ,
Minimum Wage ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Race Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Senate Confirmation Hearings ,
Workplace Hazards
He’s Running. President Joe Biden announced this week that he will run for reelection in 2024. President Biden has stated that he is the most pro-union president in history, so the Buzz will not be surprised if labor and...more
5/1/2023
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Joe Biden ,
Joint Employers ,
Make-Whole Doctrine ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
OSHA ,
OSHRC ,
Political Candidates ,
Presidential Elections ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Senate Confirmation Hearings ,
Unions
POTUS Signs Bill Ending COVID-19 Emergency. On April 10, 2023, President Biden signed a congressional resolution officially ending the COVID-19 national emergency. The resolution was passed out of the U.S. House of...more
4/17/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Federal Contractors ,
H-1B ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
USCIS
Wilson Leaving FTC. Christine Wilson, the only Republican commissioner serving on the Federal Trade Commission, announced this week that she would be resigning her position. In an opinion piece printed by an internationally...more
The Pandemic Is Dead! Long Live the Pandemic! This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution to immediately end the COVID-19 national emergency, as well as a bill to end the COVID-19 public health emergency....more
2/6/2023
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Congressional Investigations & Hearings ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employment Contract ,
Enforcement Guidance ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
OSHA ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Union Elections ,
Unions
Union Membership Decreases. The percentage of workers who are union members dropped to 10.1 percent in 2022 from 10.3 percent in 2021, according to data released this week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In the...more
1/23/2023
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Congressional Committees ,
Deferred Action ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Union Elections ,
Unions
118th Congress Takes Shape. The Buzz certainly didn’t think we’d still be dissecting the results of the 2022 midterms ten days after Election Day, but here we are....more
OSHA Broadens Criteria for “Severe Violators.” On September 15, 2022, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced updates to its Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) to “broaden the program’s...more
Inflation Reduction Act: Guidance on the Way? On August 16, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Democrats’ $737 billion reconciliation bill that focuses on tax reform, climate change,...more
Congressional Update. It’s the dog days of summer in Washington, D.C., and both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives are out on recess. But Congress is still making news....more
8/15/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Congressional Committees ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
OSHA ,
Pending Legislation ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Proposed Rules ,
Proxy Voting ,
Wage and Hour
Report on EEO-1 Data Confirms Flaws Yet Recommends Expansion. On July 28, 2022, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released a report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine titled...more
8/1/2022
/ Antitrust Division ,
Biden Administration ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Gig Economy ,
Heat Exposure ,
Independent Contractors ,
Information Reports ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Safety Standards ,
Wage and Hour
Respect for Marriage Act Advances. On July 20, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 267-157 to approve the Respect for Marriage Act (H.R. 8404). All Democrats and forty-seven Republicans voted in favor of the...more
7/22/2022
/ Arbitration ,
Biden Administration ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Nineteenth Amendment ,
NLRB ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
OSHA ,
Pending Legislation ,
Railway Labor Act ,
Railways ,
Sexual Assault
NLRB GC Provides Update on Recent Remedies. -
Remember back in September 2021 when the Buzz reported on National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo’s memorandum instructing regional directors to...more
Biden Administration Releases Regulatory Plans -
Maybe someone in the White House just read the Buzz’s Summer Forecast, because on June 21, 2022, the Biden administration released its Spring 2022 Unified Agenda of...more
Last week, in part one of our two-part Summer Forecast of labor and employment-related legislative and agency developments, the Buzz took a look at the U.S. Congress and what our legislators might have in store for employers...more
6/13/2022
/ Blacklist ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Legislative Agendas ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
OSHA ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
USDA ,
Wage and Hour
Contractor Watchdog Releases Audit List. Late last week, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) released its new Corporate Scheduling Announcement List (CSAL) for federal contractors. According to OFCCP,...more
5/31/2022
/ Audits ,
Congressional Committees ,
Construction Industry ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
CSALs ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Heat Exposure ,
Infectious Diseases ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Workplace Violence
NLRB GC Pushes for Card Checks, Limits on Employer Speech. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo filed a brief in a case asking the Board to make dramatic changes to federal labor law. The...more
4/25/2022
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
EEO-1 ,
Emergency Rule ,
Employee Rights ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Filing Deadlines ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
OSHA ,
Public Comment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unions
This week, President Biden released his budget for fiscal year (FY) 2023, which begins on October 1, 2022. As the Buzz has written many times in the past, because the U.S. Congress has the “power of the purse” and is solely...more
4/4/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Corporate Taxes ,
Federal Budget ,
Federal Contractors ,
NPRM ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Retirement Plan ,
SECURE Act ,
Tax Reform