Workforce Bulletin

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 ...

The Shavitz Law Group, one of the leading plaintiff-side FLSA firms in Florida, was sanctioned recently by U.S. District Judge Kenneth L. Ryskamp for soliciting plaintiffs in violation of Florida Bar rules.  The case is Hamm v. TBC Corp. and Tire Kingdom, Inc., Case No. 07-80829-CIV-RYSKAMP/VITUNAC.  The details of the case are laid out in a Report and Recommendation issued by Magistrate Judge Ann E. Vitunac. 

In his Order Adopting the Report and Recommendation, Judge Ryskamp made some telling remarks about the the nature of FLSA litigation in the Southern District of Florida:

The Shavitz Law Group and Morgan & Morgan, two of the leading wage-hour firms in Florida, stand accused of soliciting clients in violation of state ethics rules for a case pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.  The defendant in the case, Centex Homes, filed a Motion for Sanctions against the two firms on Friday.  

Centex's motion follows on the heels of a story I reported last month, Judge Ryskamp's order in the Hamm case granting sanctions against the Shavitz Law Group for soliciting clients by telephone in violation of Florida Bar Rules.  ...