Right to Work in Michigan is no longer the law: On Friday last week Governor Whitmer signed the bill repealing Right to Work. Michigan became the first state to repeal Right to Work in the country in the past sixty years.  This was no surprise. The Governor said she would sign the bill once passed even though it contains features that prevent a popular vote referendum. Governor Whitmer had stated in the past her opposition to putting appropriations in any bill because that prevents a popular vote to re-instate Right to Work down the road. She reneged on that position and signed the bill anyway. The repeal goes into effect in 90 days. At that point private union members lose their right to disassociate from their union and not pay dues. This puts control over their members’ Right to Work by allowing the union to insist that any member who does not pay dues lose their job. The repeal passed both the Michigan House and Senate along party lines. The repeal of Right to Work does not change public employees right to disassociate from their unions guaranteed by a U.S. Supreme Court decision handed down in 2018 called Janus v AFSCME. A provision in the new law also impacts public employees. 

Prevailing wage is back too:  Governor Whitmer also signed a bill re-instating prevailing wage in Michigan. This was another union-supported piece of legislation that requires contractors working on public projects to pay wages consistent with what union collective bargaining contracts set as wages for project workers.

OFCCP’s Federal Contractor Portal opens March 31, 2023:  The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) opens its Contractor Portal landing page on March 31, 2023, for existing covered federal contractors to certify compliance with Affirmative Action Program (AAP) requirements for this year.  Covered federal contractors and subcontractors must use the Contractor Portal to certify, on an annual basis, whether they have developed and maintained an AAP for each establishment and/or functional/business unit, as applicable. For 2023, existing covered contractors must certify their compliance through the Contractor Portal between March 31 - June 29, 2023. The Contractor Portal’s certification feature has been enhanced and contractors must now provide the start date of their AAP Coverage Period when certifying.  Existing contractors that have not certified by June 29, 2023, will be more likely to appear on OFCCP’s scheduling list than those that have certified their compliance with AAP requirements. Contractors that have not certified compliance include those that have not utilized the Contractor Portal to certify whether they are meeting their AAP requirements, as well as those that have certified that they have not developed or maintained an AAP.  

Employers need to update the FCRA Summary of Consumer Rights: On March 17, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published an updated version of the publication entitled, “A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act,” which is also called the “Summary of Consumer Rights.”  This version will replace the version published in October 2018.  The English and Spanish versions of the Summary and are available on the CFPB’s website.  Employers and consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) must provide the Summary to applicants and employees to comply with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).  Employers, for example, must include the Summary with every pre-adverse action notice.   The CFPB’s changes to the Summary include non-substantive revisions to correct contact information for various federal agencies.  The CFPB also revised the Summary to update references to obsolete business types, such as “Federal Land Banks,” and to make other technical corrections.  Employers and CRAs should ensure they update their forms by the March 20, 2024, deadline.  Employers and CRAs may want to defer implementing the updated Summary to see if the CFPB corrects at least one remaining typo.  Otherwise, it might be necessary to make the same change twice if the CFPB releases a further revised version.  Source:  Littler 3/22/23

California still requiring COVID Tracing until 2025: In February, the state of California introduced new long-term regulations that will require employers to conduct COVID-19 contact tracing for all positive cases until early 2025. But despite three years of pandemic experience, employers are still struggling to manage employee safety — and privacy — efficiently.  The updated regulations require contact tracing for anyone who was within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes over a 24-hour period, starting from two days before symptoms appeared. That kind of tracking can require a substantial amount of technology.  "The new regulations in California have sort of started another wave of companies being a bit concerned about ticking all the boxes with regard to health and safety," says Matt Denton, co-founder and head of product at Contact Herald. "Safeguarding individuals' privacy is the core tenet of what our system is about, and making sure that boundary between the employee and the employer is clearly defined while also meeting trade union regulations, state regulations and international regulations."  HR has a lot of boxes to check in California with this requirement.  Source: EBN 3/9/23

Chicago’s sexual harassment requirements: On April 27,2022, the Chicago City Council passed SO2022-665, which broadened the Chicago Human Rights Ordinance (the “Ordinance”) and imposed new requirements on Chicago employers with respect to preventing sexual harassment in the workplace.  Pursuant to the Ordinance, all employees working in Chicago must participate in sexual harassment prevention training and bystander training annually.  Specifically, affected employers are now required to provide a minimum of one hour of sexual harassment prevention and bystander training annually to all employees, while managers and supervisors must participate in a minimum of two hours of sexual harassment prevention training annually.  The first round of this required training must be completed by June 30, 2023.  For more information go to Chicago Commission on Human Relations website, which also includes template bystander training modules (the templates are intended to be expanded and tailored by employers to meet the needs of their specific workplace).  Source: Proskauer 3/22/23