In a 2-1 decision issued today (copy here), the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the National Labor Relations Board lacked the authority to act as early as March 2010, when President Obama appointed Craig Becker to the Board. The Third Circuit held that Member Becker’s appointment to the…
The Employer Handbook Blog
Colorado now has a social media workplace privacy law too
Over the weekend, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed a bill making Colorado the eighth state to have a social media workplace privacy law. (The others are MD, IL, CA, MI, UT, NM, and AR). You can view a copy of the new CO law here. The new law places three…
FMLA for same-sex couples? Possibly. But, a carnival? Definitely!
Senator Richard Durbin [IL-D] has reintroduced the Family and Medical Leave Inclusion Act in the U.S. Senate, while Rep. Carolyn Maloney [D-NY12] has done the same in the U.S. House of Representatives. This bill, which has been taken up in Congress several times previously — most recently in 2011 —…
Court orders re-hiring a teacher who wished her students a watery death
By now, the whole teacher blasting her job on Facebook is like death and taxes to me. I can’t a go a week or so without reading about a teacher posting photos of duct-taped students or a teacher wishing that her “devils spawn” students would drown in the ocean. Well,…
Horniest boss ever? His employee still can’t prove sexual harassment.
I’ve been searching for gold recently. So, I knew I was on to something good when I started reading this opinion last week, and wasn’t sure whether what I was reading was a sexual harassment case or a porno script. What can I say? I like the plots. Folks, if…
House passes bill permitting employees to swap OT for comp time
On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 223-204 to pass the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013, which would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to permit employers to provide compensatory time off in lieu of monetary compensation for overtime hours worked. Presently, through the Federal Employees Flexible and…
Appeals Court: NLRB union-rights poster violates free-speech rights
On Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled here that the National Labor Relations Board cannot require private employers — union and non-union — to hang this poster in a conspicuous location in the workplace. Billed by the Board as a notice advising employees of their rights under the…
NJ Gov. Christie vetoes proposed workplace social media law
You see, employment-law dorks like me use tools like these to monitor the status of pending employment-law-related bills. And, yesterday, I got a hit informing me that, on Monday, Governor Christie conditionally vetoed this proposed NJ bill, which would prohibit employers from requiring employees and candidates for disclosing online usernames…
Fact or Fiction: It’s ok to fire an employee for pro-union Facebook posts to NON-employees
That’s right folks. It’s time for another edition of “Fact or Fiction” a/k/a “Quick Answers to Quick Questions” a/k/a QATQQ f/k/a “I don’t feel like writing a long blog post.” I’ll set it up for you: You run a non-union company called RH Chili Peppers. However, one of your employees,…
“At your age, David, you hadn’t even thought about retiring?”
What could go wrong when the boss’s son asks that question of, David, a nearly-40-year employee? Oh, right, David got laid off a week later. Age discrimination? Well, let’s see… We know that when an employer inquires about an employee’s retirement plans — without bringing up age — it should…