KMK Law Management Rights Blog

Employers seeking to enforce non-compete agreements against their former employees will face a new hurdle following the latest news out of Washington, DC. National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) General Counsel Jennifer A. Abruzzo, who is responsive for the investigation and prosecution of unfair labor practice cases and for the general supervision of NLRB field offices, released a memorandum today announcing her interpretation that many non-compete agreements violate the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) and thus are not enforceable. She has directed NLRB field offices to submit cases involving non-compete agreements for further investigation.

There are several common misperceptions about employment law that seem to persist over time - employment law myths if you will. In this episode, 5 common employment law myths are exploded.

Like everything else, employment law and employment litigation is driven by economics. Matters such as the cost of having dedicated human resources professionals and how attorneys are paid by plaintiffs and defendants can all have a significant role in employment litigation and litigation avoidance. There is also the question of whether employers should buy Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) to protect themselves against potential losses. These topics and more will be discussed in this episode.

On February 21, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB or the “Board”) issued a decision in Mclauren Macomb, 372 NLRB No. 58 (2023), holding that severance agreements that contain broad confidentiality and/or non-disparagement provisions violate Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or the “Act”) because they tend “to interfere with, restrain or coerce employees’ exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7” of the Act.  Section 7 of the NLRA guarantees employees “the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection,” as well as the right “to refrain from any or all such activities.”  

Workplace violence is in the news again. It is a difficult and frightening problem that implicates several aspects of employment law. This episode covers several thoughts on the issue of workplace violence and considers steps employers may take to lessen the risk of an incident, particularly in the context of employee terminations.

A recent trend in labor and employment law has been the passage of pay transparency laws. These are laws that require employers to either disclose salary ranges for posted jobs to applicants who request the information or in some cases, to all applicants in the actual job posting. At present, there are eight states and a handful of municipalities that have passed these laws but a lot more have pending legislation so I would expect to see more laws passed in the next couple of years. 

The states are:

• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Maryland
• Nevada
• New York
• Rhode Island
• Washington

In this new podcast episode, recent cases and news from the world of Labor & Employment Law will be discussed, including:

EWA stands for earned wage access. It is a way for employees to receive their earned wages before their regular pay day. Basically, a third party provider is given information about time worked by the employee and pays them the amount earned right away rather than the employee having to wait for payday.

In this new podcast episode, recent cases and news from the world of Labor & Employment Law will be discussed, including:

FMLA Retaliation – What constitutes “protected activity” under the FMLA?

Perkins v. City of New York – In this failure to accommodate case, the Court concluded that an ineffective accommodation does not satisfy the requirements of the law.

Davis v. City of Montevallo – Your employee handbook has a solid at-will disclaimer so you can’t get in trouble for a termination – right?

Pregnancy Discrimination – The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ...

The New Year is here and this episode will consider some trends from 2022 and what to expect in 2023 and beyond.