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Employment Law Newsletter: A Monthly Report On Labor Law Issues

Our Monthly Report on Labor Law Issues, also known as the Employment Law Bulletin, is a monthly newsletter that covers a wide range of labor law issues, including affirmative action plans, strikes, OSHA regulations, minimum wage requirements, and more. Other topics covered have included issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as workplace walk-outs and strikes, vaccinations, and employee rights related to positive test results and quarantine. The newsletter also covers issues related to discrimination, such as artificial intelligence and racial bias, and issues related to unions, such as organizing efforts and union successes at companies like Amazon and Starbucks. The newsletter also covers issues related to taxes, immigration, and court cases related to labor law. Stay informed and avoid legal missteps, by subscribing to email updates here.

Amazon on a samsung phone
In the most closely watched union representation election in at least a decade, Amazon workers at its warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, defeated the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, with 1,798 no votes to only 738 yes votes, along with approximately 500 challenged ballots that will not be counted because it would not affect the results. Statist...
$100 on a clacualator on phone in a hand over a wooden table indoors
The $1.9 trillion stimulus bill has significant effects on employment.  
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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) are independent agencies within the Executive Branch of government, and no American President until President Biden has fired the General Counsel of these agencies during their term of office. Since the firing of the NLRB General Counsel, respondents in NLRB cases...
caution cleaning signs laying on the ground flat
In a January 2021 Executive Order, President Biden directed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to establish a COVID-19 National Emphasis Program and asked the agency to determine by March 15, 2021 whether to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard tailored to the pandemic.  A report from the Office of Inspector General of the Depa...
hands of different people on a wooden table indoors
The Protecting the Right to Organize Act (the PRO Act) has been a long-term goal of organized labor.  It previously passed the House of Representatives last year, but the Democrats never had sufficient power in the Senate to bring the bill to a vote there.  On March 9, 2021, the House voted 225-206 to pass H.R. 842, the PRO Act.   This Bill...
Person typing on a laptop computer at a desk indoors
On March 11, 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) indicated it would review the previous Administration's worker classification regulation of determining independent contractor relationships.  The Wage and Hour Division will allow a 30-day comment period on its proposal to repeal the Trump rule, which had made it easier to classify workers as independ...
man outside, working on computer laptop
In February of 2020, only 8% of the U.S. workforce did their job entirely from home.  As the pandemic took hold, that number increased to 35% in May, and the general movement to homework resulted in home workers working in less densely populated areas.  
vote biden sticky note, indoors
The Biden Administration has immediately moved to freeze pending Department of Labor (DOL) regulations that would make it easier to designate workers as independent contractors.  This rule was previously stated to take effect March 8, 2021.  A new and finalized similar rule from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has similarly be...
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On the same day of President Biden's swearing-in, the new White House delivered to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Peter Robb an ultimatum to resign by 5:00 p.m. or be fired.  No President in U.S. history had taken such a bold move as the NLRB General Counsel position is a four-year appointment at an independent federal agency.  The ...
federal washington building
Republicans have taken a playbook that the Democrats used against Trump in going to federal court to seek nationwide injunctions against policy changes.  In late January 2021, a federal judge in Texas blocked the Biden Administration's 100-day pause on deportations.  Judge Tipton of the Southern District of Texas granted a temporary restraining ...
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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced on January 29, 2021, new and stronger workplace guidance on the Coronavirus.  Implementing a Coronavirus Prevention Program, according to OSHA, is the most effective way to reduce the spread of the virus.  The guidance recommends several essential elements in a prevention program: