Michigan’s Attorney General, Dana Nessel, entered into an agreement with the Detroit and Minneapolis National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) offices to report and refer violations of labor law that the State comes across. The violations will be reported directly to the NLRB for investigation and possible prosecution, thus, giving the pro-labor federal agency more eyes on employers.
This arrangement will impact private employers and will aid in union organizing. With the Michigan agencies helping, the NLRB will be following up on possible violations of state labor, tax, and workers’ compensation laws that the State may suspect, and now the NLRB can also focus its resources and investigations upon. This cooperation agreement will be for one year only as of right now.
Agreements to cooperate between federal agencies have been around for some time, but a cooperative agreement between the NLRB and a State Attorney General is a first.
Specifically, the cooperation agreement will focus on areas of the law that state and federal enforcement overlap. This would be looking at employer’s misclassification of workers as independent contractors, a big concern of the Biden Administration’s labor policy. It would also look into financial practices that allegedly harm workers and interfere with their right to obtain fair market value for their labor. This is what has sometimes been called “wage theft.” But investigation and enforcement are also directed at identifying employers that may allegedly restrict employee’s ability to switch jobs. Restrictions may come by way of onerous non-compete agreements and another practice where companies apply repayment agreements for costly training programs that allegedly prevent employees from moving to other jobs until they repay the cost of training.
If the State of Michigan agencies under the Attorney General discover such practices in the course of their work, under this agreement the agency will refer the worker or workers to the other agency. LAW360 Employment Authority reports that the federal agencies and state agencies may also train each other’s workers to identify violations of their respective state or federal laws.
Attorney General Dana Nessel stated, “This partnership with the National Labor Relations Board bolsters our ability to enforce those laws and protect our workforce.” Unfortunately, this partnership also gives the federal government another set of pro-labor eyes on Michigan’s private employers that could result in more allegations against employers in Michigan for federal labor law violation.
Source: LAW360 Employment Authority. NLRB Prosecutors, Mich. AG Ink Labor Enforcement Pact (8/13/2024)