US Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-VT) seized upon the aforementioned California court decision in Dynamex (above) and filed legislation this week in Congress that would adopt the three-factor “ABC” classification on the national level. Perhaps more importantly however, the bill the Senator is calling the Workplace Democracy Act would nullify state right-to-work…
Read More »Just a week or so ago, a Portland Oregon Burgerville became the first fast food restaurant to be unionized when its employees voted 18-4 in an NLRB sanctioned election to unionize and become members of the Portland chapter of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Immediately thereafter, employees of another of the Vancouver, Washington-based…
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In this day and age, most employers have considered the possibility of wage-hour liability. Savvy employers understand that wage-hour liability comes in many different forms, and two of the most talked about have been “misclassification” and unpaid overtime. Misclassification can occur in one of two ways: either the employer classifies a worker as an independent…
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Andy Puzder is widely credited with turning around the troubled quick service restaurant chains of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. By the time he left his position last year – and was being considered for the position of U.S. Labor Secretary – Puzder had earned a reputation as a smart restaurant operator who understands the challenges…
Read More »Advocates, who have been pushing for years now to try and unionize fast food workers, have finally succeeded, although it may be on a small scale for the time being. Workers at a Portland Burgerville restaurant voted to unionize this past Monday in an election sanctioned by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The final…
Read More »The Obama-era NLRB adopted the so-called “Ambush Election rule” back in December 2014 with the significantly shortened timeframe taking effect on April 14, 2015. The effect of the rule change was significant and among other changes, served to reduce the time frame from the filing of a union representation petition to the holding of the…
Read More »The Department of Labor’s new amnesty program for companies that owe back wages becomes effective next Tuesday, April 3. The Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program allows employers to self-report wage and hour violations without legal consequences so long as they are not prior offenders and they pay affected workers the full back pay owed.…
Read More »The US Department of Labor is certainly taking a different approach to resolution of wage disputes with a new pilot program the department announced this week. DOL announced the Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program on Tuesday of this week as a vehicle that will be operated by the Wage and Hour Division to help…
Read More »Oral arguments were presented earlier this week before the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in the case of Janus v. AFSCME, considered one of the most significant challenges to organized labor in recent years. The issue goes to the heart of the political strength of public employee unions by challenging laws requiring payment…
Read More »Think this is who they mean? When we hear feel good politicians talk about the evils of money in politics and special interests buying favorable legislation, my guess is they don’t mean unions! Notwithstanding, it’s been reported that one of New York City’s powerful unions made regular edits and arguably had a veto on final…
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