Tag: employers

NLRB Overturns Two Decades-Old Precedents Relating to What Employers Can Say to Employees Regarding Views on Unions

Anthony B. Haller and Gabrielle I. Weiss ●

With a new administration looming, the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) recently issued two decisions that radically depart from established law about what an employer can say and how an employer can lawfully meet with its employees during a union organizing campaign.

  • Employers have always been able to tell employees that one of the disadvantages of unions is that they impede direct dealing between the company and its employees. This is because employees give up their individual rights in favor of exclusive collective representation by the union, and it puts a third party in the middle of the employment relationship. Despite this being an obvious truism, depending on what is said by the company, this may now be illegal under the Board’s decision in Siren Retail Corp. dba Starbucks and Workers United affiliated with Service Employees International Union (“Starbucks”).

  • Employers have always been able to have a mandatory meeting—the so-called “captive audience meeting”—of all employees in the bargaining unit at least 24 hours before a union representation election to make its case for why it believes that a union is unnecessary for the employees. These meetings have been among the top tools employers use to fend off union organizing campaigns. This type of mandatory meeting is now illegal under the Board’s decision in Amazon.com Services LLC and Amazon Labor Union (“Amazon”).

Time will tell if these decisions hold up under the new administration; but, for now, they are the law.

Continue reading “NLRB Overturns Two Decades-Old Precedents Relating to What Employers Can Say to Employees Regarding Views on Unions”

Colorado Goes “Wage & Hour” Crazy—Enhances Employee Protections a la California

Jason E. Reisman and Alix L. Udelson

For all of those employers with employees based in Colorado, we wanted to update you on some sweeping changes to Colorado wage and hour laws that went into effect on March 16, 2020. As you know, employers generally must comply with both state and federal wage and hour laws—essentially meeting the requirements that are most protective of employees. To date in Colorado, the state law’s applicability has been limited—but that’s not going to be the case any longer.

The new law, known as the Colorado Overtime & Minimum Pay Standards (“COMPS”) Order #36, replaces all prior Colorado Minimum Wage Orders. The most significant changes include: (1) extending Colorado’s wage and hour laws to even more employers than before; (2) adjusting the salary thresholds required for eligibility under the federal overtime exemptions for executive, administrative, and professional employees; (3) changing employee rest period requirements and requiring meal periods; (4) clarifying the definition of “time worked” for purposes of being considered “compensable time”; (5) imposing new posting and distribution requirements that will require changes to employee handbooks; (6) creating new earnings statement requirements that may require payroll to update your earnings statements; and (7) modifying the calculation of overtime so that it is based not only on a weekly basis, but on a daily and consecutive hourly basis too. More details are below, and a copy of the COMPS Order can be found here. Continue reading “Colorado Goes “Wage & Hour” Crazy—Enhances Employee Protections a la California”