Many are hopeful over the course of the nation’s labor laws over the next four years. That hope was invigorated even further when Trump named Phillip Miscimarra as acting chair of the NLRB. On March 1, the Board released a report detailing the top 10 policies they are going to focus on restoring balance to. See the list and find the report here. Congress is making some headway as well. One of their most notable actions this month is revoking the Labor Department’s fiduciary exemption for government-managed retirement funds, named Erisa (Employee Retirement Income Security Act). Early this month, the House overturned OSHA’s attempt to rewrite the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Under OSH Act, all employers are required to keep records or workplace injuries and illnesses for five years. OSHA inspectors, however, are only allowed to cite violations for record keeping that occurred within the previous six months. OSHA attempted to rewrite the law (even though government agencies have no authority to write laws) so that citations could be made for violations that occurred up to five years previous. The House of Representatives also passed the Congressional Review Act invalidating the “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” executive order, also known as the “Blacklisting Rule.” Not only does this act enjoin the rule, it also officially “removes it from the Federal Acquisition Regulation and prevents its future enforcement.” The NLRB ruled again last month that employers are required to give unions the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all employees. This includes the information of employees who are not dues paying members of the union. The 5th Circuit upheld an NLRB ruling made last November that found Traco and Alcoa (both single employers, though Alcoa bought Traco in 2010) violated the NLRA when Traco barred Alcoa union members from distributing handbills at their facility. On Friday, February 24th, the Board published new amendments to their rules and regulations. On May 7th, those new rules and regulations went into effect. You’ll find the most significant changes laid out here. In good news, the NLRB found in a recent case that “not every meeting with employees constitutes an investigative interview under Weingarten.” Specifically, in this case, the difference was found between a police interrogation and an investigative interview. Read about the case here. The NLRB has named five new Division of Judges administrative law judges. Click here to see the list and find out more.
