Biden administration

Last month, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that an employer violates Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or Act) when the employer offers employee severance agreements with provisions restricting employees’ Section 7 rights under the Act, such as with overly broad confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions.  McLaren Macomb, 372 NLRB No.… Continue Reading

On January 30, 2023, the Biden Administration said that it will end COVID-19 emergency declarations on May 11, 2023.  The federal government has been paying for COVID-19 vaccines, some tests, and certain treatments under the public health emergency declaration. Many of those costs now will be transferred to private insurance and government health plans.… Continue Reading

In a divided decision handed down yesterday, January 17, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit partially affirmed the decision of a federal District Court eliminating, in part, aspects of an employer-friendly 2019 Rule put in place by the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) to “ensure fair and accurate voting, transparency, uniformity, certainty and finality, and efficiency” in the union election process by, in effect, slowing some of the Obama-era NLRB’s “quickie election” procedures.  … Continue Reading

For the second time in less than a week, the National Labor Relations Board has thrown out a Trump-era standard and reinstated Obama-era rules favorable to labor unions. In Bexar County Performing Arts Center Foundation, 16-CA-193636 (“Bexar County II“), the Board restricted a business owner’s ability to prohibit off-duty contract workers from conducting labor protests on its property.… Continue Reading

Employers that violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) will have to pay workers additional damages under a recently issued precedential decision from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board). 

In Thryv, Inc., the NLRB ruled 3-2 that the Board’s standard remedy for make-whole relief should include consequential damages.  The Board now will “expressly order that the respondent compensate affected employees for all direct or foreseeable pecuniary harms suffered as a result of the respondent’s unfair labor practice” to more fully realize the concept of “make-whole relief” under Section 10(c) of the NLRA. … Continue Reading

The United States indicted DaVita, Inc., and Kent Thiry, DaVita’s former Chief Executive Officer, last year alleging that they had violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act by engaging in “Conspiracy in Restraint of Trade to Allocate Employees.” The essential elements of the criminal charges were alleged agreements with competitors not to poach each other’s employees.… Continue Reading

On February 7, 2022, the Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment publicly released its report to President Joe Biden, offering nearly 70 recommendations to promote pro-union policies and practices in the public and private sectors. The Task Force, chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris, embodies President Biden’s vow to be the “most pro-union President” in United States history.… Continue Reading