On September 13th, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced that it will propose a new joint employer rule that represents a relaxation of the current standard for determining if businesses are joint employers.  Under the current rule, known as the Brown-Ferris rule, the definition of joint employer is expansive, so that an employer having only indirect or potential control over another employer’s workers can be found to be a joint employer. 

Under the proposed rule, an employer may be found to be a joint employer of another employer’s employees only if it possesses and ...

On Monday, May 21, 2018, in a 5-4 opinion, the United States Supreme Court issued a long-awaited decision in the case, Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, on the issue of the enforceability of class action waivers in arbitration agreements that bar employees from joining together in class action claims, holding such waivers to be enforceable.  Employers now have the benefit of including class action waivers in arbitration agreements without the uncertainty of the last several years, when jurisdictions differed regarding their enforceability.

The challenge to enforceability in the case ...

Since last Thursday, the Internet has been buzzing with news of the National Labor Relations Board’s decision in Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc., which held that a Silicon Valley recycling center was a “joint employer” along with the staffing agency that provided the center’s workers. In so doing, the Board established a new standard for determining the existence of joint employers.

The Board began by stating that two or more entities may be joint employers of the same employees if they “share or co-determine those matters governing the essential terms ...

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently ratified all the decisions made by the NLRB, including those made in administrative and personnel matters, during the period of time when it did not have a proper quorum. This was the period from January 4, 2012 to August 5, 2013, during which the United States Supreme Court held in NLRB v. Noel Canning, that the NLRB did not have a proper quorum due to improper recess appointments. The NLRB ratified its prior actions in an attempt to eliminate any questions concerning the validity of the decisions it made during this period. Will ...

That may be what the NLRB and others are thinking right now. Remember all those rather aggressive decisions made by the NLRB about a couple of years ago? It is as if they never happened. In a unanimous decision, the United States Supreme Court has invalidated all decisions of the NLRB since January 2012, when President Obama appointed 3 of the 5 member NLRB during a time when Congress was convening every 3 days, to July 2013, when the Senate confirmed a 5 member board. In National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning, the Supreme Court held that the president lacked authority to make the ...