Workforce Bulletin

In the new issue of Take 5, our colleagues examine important and evolving issues confronting owners, operators, and employers in the hospitality industry:

• Avoiding “Perfectly Clear” Successor Status When Acquiring a Property with a Union Workforce Now Requires Greater Vigilance

• Restaurant Manager Misclassification Complaints Highlight Important Defense Strategies for Hospitality Owner/Operators

• Managing the Rise in Hospitality Data Breaches

• Buyer Beware: Purchasing Assets from a Unionized Employer May Come with a Nasty Withdrawal Liability Surprise

• Are ...

Featured on Employment Law This Week:  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit backs the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in an outsourcing dispute.

The NLRB found that a management company violated the National Labor Relations Act when it outsourced the cleaning staff of a hotel that it managed. The NLRB found evidence that the outsourcing decision was related to the worker’s interest in union representation. The NLRB rejected the company’s argument that the decision was due to declining guest satisfaction, concluding that the decision was at least, in part ...

A recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit illustrates the potential pitfalls of outsourcing in the face of a union campaign, as well as the steep hurdle employers face in overturning a decision of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”). In Remington Lodging & Hospitality, LLC v. NLRB, the Fifth Circuit enforced an NLRB order holding that a hotel management company’s decision to outsource the hotel’s housekeeping department was motivated at least in part by anti-union animus and therefore violated Section 8(a)(3) of the National Labor ...

The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”), in its recent decision in Graymont PA, Inc., 364 NLRB No. 37 (June 29, 2016), has fired the latest salvo in its long running dispute with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit concerning the issue of what legal standard should be applied when a union claims that an employer has made a unilateral change in terms and conditions of employment during the term of a collective bargaining agreement and the employer claims that the union waived its right to bargain over the topic in question in a ...

Two years ago, as we discussed here and here, in NLRB v. Noel Canning, 134 S. Ct. 2550 (2014), the U.S. Supreme Court held unconstitutional President Obama’s January 2012 recess appointments of Members Block, Flynn and Griffin to the National Labor Relations Board (“Board” or “NLRB”). The decision cast into doubt the validity of hundreds of NLRB orders and official actions.

Recently, in Advanced Disposal Services East Inc. v. NLRB, decided April 21, 2016, the employer, Advanced Disposal Services, unsuccessfully attempted to invalidate actions taken by Regional ...

By: Adam C. Abrahms, Kara M. Maciel, Steven M. Swirsky, and Mark M. Trapp

The U.S. Supreme Court today held that the US Senate was not in recess on January 4, 2012, when President Obama made three “recess” appointments to the National Labor Relations Board under the Constitution’s Recess Appointment Clause.  In simple terms that means that the recess appointments were not proper and s decisions in which the recess appointees participated were not valid.

What this now means is that hundreds of cases decided by the NLRB following the January 4, 2012 recess appointments to the ...

Most unionized hospitality employers have collective bargaining agreements which require contributions to multiemployer pension funds. In recent years, many of these pension funds have slipped into “endangered” or even “critical” status, and employers who have exited these funds have been hit with substantial assessments of withdrawal liability. These assessments often amount to millions of dollars in withdrawal liability.

Many employers are unfamiliar with the complicated procedures for contesting an assessment of withdrawal liability from a multiemployer ...

Our colleague Mark M. Trapp recently wrote an article entitled "Going Through Withdrawal: A Step-By-Step Guide to Arbitration in Multiemployer Withdrawal Liability Disputes" which appears in the current issue of the ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law (members only).   

Following is an excerpt:

Many employers with a unionized workforce contribute to multiemployer pension funds established by collective bargaining agreements. In recent years, due to a variety of factors, most multiemployer funds have faced significant underfunding. As employers have exited these funds ...

In a recent Law360 article, "NLRB Social Media Push Looms Large for Hospitality Sector" (subscription required), our colleague Mark Trapp comments on the importance for unionized and non-unionized hospitality employers to review their social media policies.

Following is an excerpt:

With the National Labor Relations Board increasingly interjecting into non-union issues, hotels, restaurants and other labor-intensive hospitality companies need to brace for potential claims and tread carefully when crafting social media policies for employees, experts say.

Over the last ...

Evan Rosen and Mark M. Trapp of the Labor and Employment practice co-wrote an article titled “What To Know About ACA Collective Bargaining”

Following is an excerpt:

For the unionized employer, the advent of the Affordable Care Act requires careful strategic thought about its impact on upcoming collective bargaining negotiations. Indeed, for companies with a unionized workforce, the ACA poses additional challenges and strategic considerations above and beyond those confronting nonunionized workforces.

Click here to read the full article.

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The Workforce Bulletin blog is currently edited by Adam S. Forman, Greta Ravitsky, Elizabeth S. Torkelsen, and Jennifer Stefanick Barna.