Workforce Bulletin

By:  Kara M. Maciel

On August 25, 2011, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) adopted a final rule to require all employers to post a notice of employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). The required posting provides information to employees about the right to organize a union, bargain collectively, and engage in protected concerted activity – as well as the right to refrain from such activity. Significantly, this posting requirement is required for all hospitality employers – large and small -- regardless of whether your operations are ...

by Steven M. Swirsky and Michael F. McGahan

On Thursday, August 18, 2011, the Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB" or "Board") issued a report on the outcome of 14 cases involving employees' use of social media or social media policies in general. This report follows a more expansive "Survey of Social Media Issues Before the NLRB" issued by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on August 5, 2011, which addresses 129 cases involving social media reviewed by the NLRB at some level. Further, after these reports were published, an NLRB administrative law judge ("ALJ ...

By:  Kara M. Maciel and Mark M. Trapp

On August 23, 2011 the Washington D.C. area experienced a 5.9 magnitude earthquake. A week later, a “labor law earthquake” of far greater magnitude had its epicenter in a federal agency in D.C. In the coming weeks and months, its aftershocks will be felt by unprepared employers, particularly those operating hotels, restaurants, spas and clubs in the hospitality industry.

In an opinion that America’s largest private sector labor union called a“monumental victor[y] … for unions,” the National Labor Relations Board ...

As you may know, the authors of this blog are attorneys at Epstein Becker Green, a national law firm with approximately 300 lawyers practicing in ten offices throughout the U.S.

On July 19, 2011, Epstein Becker Green’s Jay P. Krupin testified before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) concerning the Board’s dramatic rulemaking proposals to modify the representation election process. The firm was one of only a handful of management-side firms invited to provide testimony on behalf of clients at this first-ever NLRB hearing.

Vigorously arguing against the proposed ...

By:  Kara M. Maciel and Evan Rosen 

In recent weeks the Obama Administration’s National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) has been very active in soliciting public comments and amicus briefs on a wide range of decisions and proposed regulations that could drastically change the labor relations landscape. One of these topics are the rules surrounding the scope of union solicitation on a non-unionized employer’s private property. 

We have received many inquiries from our clients about the Board's review of whether to change the solicitation rules. In light of the ...

By:     Michael Casey, Peter Panken, and Steven Swirsky

The new Obama National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) has signaled that it will likely be granting union organizers the right to enter employers’ premises to conduct union organizing activity. This would reverse a trend in the last few years of preserving an employer's property rights, and of confining union organizers to areas outside of an employer's private premises, including those areas open to the public, in hotels, restaurants, clubs and other hospitality venues where non-employees ...