In a significant win for employers, the United States Supreme Court has issued a landmark decision upholding the use of class action waivers in employment arbitration agreements. This ruling permits employers across the country to enforce individual arbitration agreements with employees, even where the agreement requires an employee to pursue legal claims on an individualized
Jim Shore
Jim Shore helps employers and entrepreneurs in a variety of industries address their business needs and toughest labor and employment law challenges. His practice includes employment litigation and trial work; labor-management relations; advice and litigation assistance involving trade secrets, restrictive covenants, data theft and other areas where employment and intellectual property issues intersect; business transactions and reorganizations; and daily human resources and labor advice. Jim also manages sensitive internal investigations for clients. Jim is inducted as a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers for his sustained outstanding performance in the profession.
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Trump NLRB Shakes Up the Labor World in Striking Down Numerous Obama Board Decisions
It might appear that in some years, the National Labor Relations Board (the Board) issues a series of decisions just as the year comes to a close, but it is not because the Board wants to give out holiday presents (or, from the employer’s perspective for the past several years, multiple lumps of coal). Rather…
Employers Need Not Disclose Pay Data on EEO-1 Reports; September Deadline Moved to 2018
Employers can breathe a sigh of relief. The Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) announced this week that it was removing a requirement that EEO-1 reports contain employee pay data. The now-defunct Obama-era requirement announced in 2016 would have required employers to disclose compensation information to the EEOC regarding all employees, including executives – which many employers consider to be highly confidential. The OMB also announced that it extended the EEO-1 reporting deadline from September 30 of this year to March 31, 2018.
Continue Reading Employers Need Not Disclose Pay Data on EEO-1 Reports; September Deadline Moved to 2018
Washington State Enacts Its Own “Blacklisting” Statute
Although federal contractors were able to breathe a sigh of relief after the current administration put a stop to President Obama’s “Blacklisting” executive order, employers in the state of Washington must now comply with their own “blacklisting” law. On May 8, Washington state signed into law Senate Bill 5301 (“SB 5301”), which bans employers from competing for state and local contracts if they have “willfully” violated select wage statutes in the past three years. Employers with such violations are deemed not to be “responsible bidders” and are disqualified from obtaining public works projects. SB 5301 passed with bi-partisan support.
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New Drug Testing Rules in Oregon Follow OSHA
Employers are probably aware that OSHA’s new drug testing and anti-retaliation rule is now in effect. (See our post here discussing the rule.) However, as we blogged previously, many states have their own reporting requirements, which are not required to track OSHA’s rules precisely, but which must be “at least as effective” as OSHA’s…
Labor & Employment Law Under President-Elect Trump
In the wake of the election results, the question on everyone’s mind now is: What impact will President-Elect Trump have on employers? Trump has thus far given few details on his thoughts on labor and employment. But with Republicans maintaining control of Congress, employers could see a lot of changes in the next couple of years. Our experts weighed in with their thoughts on how different areas of labor and employment law may be affected.
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The Third Shoe Drops: The Department of Labor Issues Revised “Advice” Regulations
As we’ve previously blogged, for several years the Obama Administration has been on a calculated campaign to increase unionization in America. Federal agencies, particularly that National Labor Relations Board, have been systematically changing longstanding rules to make it more likely that unions can prevail in election representation campaigns. We previously blogged about two earlier key components of this campaign: the revised rules from the NLRB approving “quickie” union elections on dramatically shortened time frames; and even earlier efforts to allow unions to designate “micro-units,” increasingly small groups of employees so that unions may narrowly focus their organizing efforts. Now, in the twilight of the Obama Administration, the final effort in the campaign to increase unionization has just been announced: the Department of Labor has finally issued its long threatened regulations that would dramatically narrow the scope of confidential advice employers can receive when dealing with union organizing campaigns.
Continue Reading The Third Shoe Drops: The Department of Labor Issues Revised “Advice” Regulations
Colorado Supreme Court Upholds Firing of Medical Marijuana User
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled today in a 6-0 decision that Colorado’s “lawful activities statute,” which provides protections to employees who engage in lawful off-duty conduct, only applies to conduct that is lawful under both state and federal law. The Court’s decision in Coats v. Dish Network, which can be accessed here, involved…
NLRB Attempts to Make an End Run Around Courts Invalidating its Rulings on Arbitration Agreements
On October 28, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued its decision in Murphy Oil USA Inc., once again attempting to prohibit employers from requiring employees to enter into agreements to arbitrate employment disputes if those agreements preclude collective or class action litigation. As we have blogged about in the past, this new decision runs contrary to an overwhelming majority of federal district and appellate court decisions rejecting and criticizing the Obama NLRB’s previous attempt to so extend the law. A copy of the Murphy Oil USA decision can be found here.
In Murphy Oil, the NLRB split 3-2 along party lines, with the majority finding that gas station chain Murphy Oil’s arbitration agreements were unlawful. In so doing, the NLRB reaffirmed its controversial January 2012 DR Horton ruling, where the Board ruled that such agreements conflict with employees’ rights to engage in concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals refused the enforce the Board’s order, and the NLRB declined to seek review from the U.S. Supreme Court. In what some might say is refusing to take “no” for an answer, the NLRB is trying to resurrect its DR Horton decision.Continue Reading NLRB Attempts to Make an End Run Around Courts Invalidating its Rulings on Arbitration Agreements
Washington Supreme Court Finds Employer’s Discretionary Bonus Not Unlawful “Rebate” Under Wage Rebate Act (“WRA”)
In a 5-4 decision, the Washington Supreme Court has ruled in an employer’s favor and clarified what are, and are not, statutory “wages” and unlawful wage “rebates” under Washington State’s Wage Rebate Act (“WRA”), RCW 49.52 et seq. The case is LaCoursiere v. CamWest Development, No. 88298-3 (Wash. Oct. 23, 2014) (slip op.). Camwest Development (“CamWest”) was represented by Stoel Rives attorneys Jim Shore and Karin Jones.
CamWest, a real estate development company, created an optional bonus program via individual written contracts with its participating managers. The bonus program was intended to provide the potential for larger manager bonuses in profitable years, but it also carried a downside risk of smaller, or no, bonuses in leaner years. Participating managers’ contracts made expressly clear that the decision whether or not to award an annual bonus, and the amount of any bonus, was in CamWest’s discretion. Managers did not have to participate in this higher reward/higher risk bonus program and could instead choose to receive a safer, set bonus. Managers who chose to participate in the optional bonus program were required by its terms to contribute a percentage of each annual bonus into a capital account in a separately formed managers LLC. The LLC would in turn loan money to CamWest to be invested in real estate projects that CamWest would develop. The hope and intention at the time was that this arrangement would yield higher profit and bonuses for participating managers. Manager contributions to the LLC vested at 20% per year.Continue Reading Washington Supreme Court Finds Employer’s Discretionary Bonus Not Unlawful “Rebate” Under Wage Rebate Act (“WRA”)