As we wrote about last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released its final rules implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA). The final rules provide some important definitions to understand.

On Monday the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reported that the final version of the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act (PWFA) regulations will be published in the Federal Register August 19th.  The PWFA was passed December 29, 2022, and took effect in June of 2023. Last August proposed rules were released, and the public’s comments were requested. Over 100,000 comments were received.

Limitation of Action Agreements are a contract between the employer and employee, usually agreed upon at the start of employment or even before on the application form, whereby the employee agrees they will not bring a wrongful employment lawsuit against their employer typically beyond 180 days of the cause of action. This shortens the time an employee can bring a wrongful employment lawsuit against their employer from what the statute or common law may ordinarily provide them.

On Friday, the Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) issued final “walk around” rules that will allow persons such as union representatives/activists or other third parties to accompany OSHA Inspectors into non-union workplaces (onto private property) to walk with them during safety inspections. “The new rules give the employer and the employee the right to authorize a representative to accompany the OSHA official during a workplace inspection.” The final rule...

When reviewing employee handbooks one of the tougher feedback discussions is about how a policy is written and having to explain why on its face it is a fairly esoteric policy, but it is too broadly written and may be a violation of federal labor law.

Most Michigan HR professionals know something about the Bullard Plawecki Employee Right to Know Act. It has been around since 1978 (PA 397) and permits current and former employees the right to review what is in their personnel file. This type of law is often referred to as a sunshine law.

Last Friday a federal judge struck down the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regulations expanding its control over the job terms and conditions it uses to determine whether two employers are in fact one for the purposes of labor law application. The Joint Employer rule was supposed to take effect Monday (March 11th) from a previous court stay, but the Texas federal judge hearing the case vacated that decision and held the regulations were too far reaching in their scope for a federal...

If you have not heard, Gen Z (also referred to as Zoomers), those people born between 1997 and 2013 have been using their “ghosting” powers to not show up for interviews with employers or even going through the interview process, getting the job, and then not showing up for their new job without the courtesy of even a phone call – not cool. This behavior is predominantly attributed to Gen Z but has also been picked up by their next generation elders too – the...

Should workers violating a company dress code policy be protected under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) if they are wearing or displaying political slogans on their uniforms protesting for an issue unrelated to their work?

In the category of what’s good for the goose is good for the gander we have the pro-union National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently finding the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union engaged in a myriad of unfair labor practices with its own unionized staff who are members of FAIR. (Yes, unions have unions.)

Cemex Construction is challenging the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) “radical change” which would allow the NLRB to bypass an organizing election and order bargaining if it finds the employer engaged in an unfair labor practice during the campaign. It also extended the rules for requiring union election if the union demands recognition. Before this decision, an employer was not required to recognize a union and the union was the one that had to demand an election....

This Sunday is the Super Bowl, and while it will not be as great without the Lions there, there is a good chance your employees are betting on it. The American Gaming Association estimated that upwards of 28 million Americans participated in office pools for the 2023 Super Bowl. This was up 50% from 2022 and it is expected even more employees will be in office pools this year. How should employers feel about that?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported union membership continued to decline in 2023. The BLS reported that private sector union membership increased by 191,000 members during the year. Union representation was 11.2% of workers in 2023 down from 11.3% in 2022.

While it seems like elections and politics have been on-going rather than every two or four years, we are now entering the actual election year, and employers should prepare themselves to address possible employee dissent, rancor, or worse.

In a little bit of a surprise from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an NLRB judge upheld a Whole Foods’ ban on Black Lives Matter (BLM) wear/gear in its workplace. Some may remember that in 2020 Whole Foods was challenged by civil and labor rights activists for prohibiting the wearing of BLM insignia on its uniforms while at work. Whole Foods had a policy that banned “any visible slogan, message, logo or advertising” on its uniforms.