2020
- Holidays...To Pay or Not to Pay, What is Required
- EEOC Update on COVID-19
- Protection of Employee Health Information
- Civil Rights Win for LGBTQ Employees
- OSHA Recordkeeping Requirements During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- The Line Between At-Will Termination and Wrongful Termination
- Regulating Firearms in the Workplace
- Social Media Use in Hiring
2019
2018
- What Not to Wear
- Vicarious Liability for Unlawful Harrassment
- Employee Surveillance & Union Formation
- A Lesson in Retaliation
- Employers May Sometimes Judge a Book By Its Cover
- Mind Your P’s and Q’s . . . and BFOQs
- Severance Agreements
- U.S. Department of Labor "Paid" Program
- Revisiting Records Retention
- Calculating the Regular Rate
- Independent Contractor or Employee?
2017
- Sexual Orientation Discrimination
- DRI Membership: It’s Personal
- Is Extended Leave a Reasonable Accommodation?
- Parental Leave
- Pay Disparity
- Religious accomodation in the workplace
- Equal pay and prior salary information
- I quit! How to avoid constructive discharge
- You Can't Shred Email
- Navigating Unemployment Claims
- Considering Criminal History in Pre-Employment Decisions
- Defamation Claims from Former Employees
- Mixed Motive Causation
2016
- Requesting Accomodation: Kowitz v. Trinity Health
- Antitrust Law in Human Resources
- An Evolving Standard: Joint-Employment
- What Does At-Will Employment Mean for Employers?
- Let's Talk About Wages
- THE FLSA: CHANGES ARE COMING
- Follow Up: Obesity and the ADA
- The Importance of Social Media Policies
- Is Obesity a Qualifying Disability under the ADA?
- Retaliation on the Rise: The EEOC Responds
- What Motivates You?
2015
- "But I thought ...
- Who’s expecting? And what is he expecting?
- Are You Still Doing Annual Performance Reviews?
- Who is Your Employee?
- The unpaid intern trap Part II
- “We’ve been the victim of a cyber-attack”
- So, a Hasidic Jew, a nun in a habit and a woman wearing a headscarf walk into your office?
- The unpaid intern trap
- Pregnancy in the workplace
- Let's talk about honesty.
- "Did You Know" Series - Part I
- Conducting an Internal Investigation
- What HR can look forward to in 2015!
2014
- The chokehold of workplace technology
- Does your company have trade secrets?
- North Dakota Construction Law Compendium for 2014
- Does the North Dakota baby boom affect you?
- Ban the Box? Why?
- The end of the world as we know it
- Everybody has an opinion
- Changes, Changes, Changes!
- Nick Grant presents at North Dakota Safety Council's 41st Annual Safety and Health Conference
- Email impairment: A potentially harmful condition
- Are Employers Required to Give Stressed-Out Employees Time Off?
2013
- Can you obtain a credit report when investigating employee wrongdoing?
- Can’t we just sidestep the ACA?
- Should Your Employees Telecommute? Part III
- Should Your Employees Telecommute? Part II
- Should Your Employees Telecommute?
- Proper Investigation of Employee Misconduct
- Battles in the Wellness War
- Rules are rules! Aren’t they?
- What's going on in Bismarck
- A glimpse ahead
2012
- Obesity as a disability under the ADA – reweighing the issue
- What’s next for your business under the Affordable Care Act?
- Criminal Background Checks
- Becoming a lawyer is a process, not an event [Section 5 of 5]
- Congress Says Yes To North Slope Energy Jobs Bill
- Test Your Knowledge of Social Media Policies and Employee Discipline
- Becoming a lawyer is a process, not an event [Section 4 of 5]
- What Every Employer Needs to Know About the NLRA
- Will the 2012 Elections Make A Difference
2011
- Where There's Smoke...
- Dress Code Etiquette: Is Casual Friday Becoming Freaky Friday
- The Next Disaster May Be Yours
- Hostile Work Environment Claims
- North Dakota Employment Law Links
- There's An App For That
- Am I a “Business Associate”? Why Should I Care?
- Do You Recognize a Cat's Paw When You See One?
- Cell Phones Can Cost a Lot, Part II
- Becoming a lawyer is a process, not an event [Section 3 of 5]
- Cell Phones Can Cost a Lot, Part I
- The Economy - What HR Professionals Need To Know
- Becoming a lawyer is a process, not an event [Section 2 of 5]
- Three New Challenges For HR Professionals
2010
Feb 01, 2012
Even casual students of labor history know that the National Labor Relation Act (NLRA) was the product of a toxic mix of the Great Depression-era’s high unemployment and a strongly-pro-business Supreme Court. Reacting to the 99 percenters of the 1930’s, Congress enacted the NLRA. Its provisions give most private-sector employees the right to organize; requires employers to meet with accredited representatives of their employees; requires employers and employees to make an honest effort to reach agreement on wages, hours and other conditions of employment; and authorizes work-stoppages if agreements are not reached or are breached. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) enforces the provisions of the NLRA.
My company’s not union. Why should I care?
What few people understand is that non-union employees also have rights under the NLRA. Specifically, the NLRB protects the rights of employees to engage in “protected concerted activity”, which is when two or more employees take action for their mutual aid or protection regarding terms and conditions of employment. A single employee may also engage in protected concerted activity if he or she is acting on the authority of other employees, bringing group complaints to the employer’s attention, trying to induce group action, or seeking to prepare for group action.
The NLRB website gives some examples of protected concerted activities that do not require unionization in order to gain the NLRB’s interest and potential protection:
• Two or more employees addressing their employer about improving their pay.
• Two or more employees discussing work-related issues beyond pay, such as safety concerns, with each other.
• An employee speaking to an employer on behalf of one or more co-workers about improving workplace conditions.
My company is small. Do I have to worry?
The short answer is, “Yes.” The NLRB website makes it clear that most employees in the private sector are covered by the NLRA. However, the Act specifically excludes individuals who are:
• employed by Federal, state, or local government;
• employed as agricultural laborers;
• employed in the domestic service of any person or family in a home;
• employed by a parent or spouse;
• employed as an independent contractor;
• employed as a supervisor (supervisors who have been discriminated against for refusing to violate the NLRA may be covered);
• employed by an employer subject to the Railway Labor Act, such as railroads and airlines; and
• employed by any other person who is not an employer as defined in the NLRA.
What do I have to worry about?
You have no doubt heard about companies firing employees for posting negative comments about the company on various social media outlets. Have you wondered whether your company could do so? Have you developed a social media policy for your workplace?
If the answer to either of those questions is “yes,” you need to know about what the NLRB is doing to protect the “concerted action” of posting information about your company on Facebook and elsewhere. The NLRB has issued guidance about social media policies and actions your company can take if you learn that your employees are dissing your company. There will be more about what you can and cannot do in future articles.
For now, rest assured that the regulatory underbrush will thicken. On January 25, 2012, the NLRB released its second report describing social media cases reviewed by the NLRB’s Office of the General Counsel. Note this less-than-comforting remark: “Given the new and evolving nature of social media cases, the Acting General Counsel has asked all regional offices to send cases which the Regions believe to be meritorious to the agency’s Division of Advice in Washington D.C., in the interest of tracking them and devising a consistent approach.”
Reprinted with permission from an article submitted for publication in the February, 2012 Southwest Area Human Resource Association newsletter.
What Every Employer Needs to Know About the NLRA
By: Paul EbeltoftEven casual students of labor history know that the National Labor Relation Act (NLRA) was the product of a toxic mix of the Great Depression-era’s high unemployment and a strongly-pro-business Supreme Court. Reacting to the 99 percenters of the 1930’s, Congress enacted the NLRA. Its provisions give most private-sector employees the right to organize; requires employers to meet with accredited representatives of their employees; requires employers and employees to make an honest effort to reach agreement on wages, hours and other conditions of employment; and authorizes work-stoppages if agreements are not reached or are breached. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) enforces the provisions of the NLRA.
My company’s not union. Why should I care?
What few people understand is that non-union employees also have rights under the NLRA. Specifically, the NLRB protects the rights of employees to engage in “protected concerted activity”, which is when two or more employees take action for their mutual aid or protection regarding terms and conditions of employment. A single employee may also engage in protected concerted activity if he or she is acting on the authority of other employees, bringing group complaints to the employer’s attention, trying to induce group action, or seeking to prepare for group action.
The NLRB website gives some examples of protected concerted activities that do not require unionization in order to gain the NLRB’s interest and potential protection:
• Two or more employees addressing their employer about improving their pay.
• Two or more employees discussing work-related issues beyond pay, such as safety concerns, with each other.
• An employee speaking to an employer on behalf of one or more co-workers about improving workplace conditions.
My company is small. Do I have to worry?
The short answer is, “Yes.” The NLRB website makes it clear that most employees in the private sector are covered by the NLRA. However, the Act specifically excludes individuals who are:
• employed by Federal, state, or local government;
• employed as agricultural laborers;
• employed in the domestic service of any person or family in a home;
• employed by a parent or spouse;
• employed as an independent contractor;
• employed as a supervisor (supervisors who have been discriminated against for refusing to violate the NLRA may be covered);
• employed by an employer subject to the Railway Labor Act, such as railroads and airlines; and
• employed by any other person who is not an employer as defined in the NLRA.
What do I have to worry about?
You have no doubt heard about companies firing employees for posting negative comments about the company on various social media outlets. Have you wondered whether your company could do so? Have you developed a social media policy for your workplace?
If the answer to either of those questions is “yes,” you need to know about what the NLRB is doing to protect the “concerted action” of posting information about your company on Facebook and elsewhere. The NLRB has issued guidance about social media policies and actions your company can take if you learn that your employees are dissing your company. There will be more about what you can and cannot do in future articles.
For now, rest assured that the regulatory underbrush will thicken. On January 25, 2012, the NLRB released its second report describing social media cases reviewed by the NLRB’s Office of the General Counsel. Note this less-than-comforting remark: “Given the new and evolving nature of social media cases, the Acting General Counsel has asked all regional offices to send cases which the Regions believe to be meritorious to the agency’s Division of Advice in Washington D.C., in the interest of tracking them and devising a consistent approach.”
Reprinted with permission from an article submitted for publication in the February, 2012 Southwest Area Human Resource Association newsletter.