Today, in Miller and Anderson, Inc. v. Tradesmen International and Sheet Metal Works International Association, Local Union No. 19, AFL-CIO, the NLRB decided that, pursuant to the NLRA, temporary or leased employees who work for an employer as joint employees under an agreement with a staffing agency or similar entity do not have to have […]
Congratulations to our very own Erica N. Reib who has been elected to the Board of the Labor and Employment Section of the State Bar. Erica is a member of O’Neil Cannon’s Employment Law Practice Group. She assists clients with employment discrimination litigation, non-competition and trade secret litigation, OSHA matters, wage and hour issues, NLRB […]
Last week, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision stating that class waivers in arbitration agreements for employees are invalid. The Court in Lewis v. Epic Systems Corp. adopted the controversial position of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and found that a collective and class action waiver in an employer’s contract violated […]
Last week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) finalized new record-keeping and reporting rules that require certain employers to electronically submit information about workplace injuries and illnesses to OSHA. The electronic reporting requirements of the rule apply only to employers with 250 or more employees and to employers with between 20 and 249 employees […]
On Wednesday, May 4, 2016, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker approved an emergency rule submitted by the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. Under this emergency rule, certain individuals receiving unemployment benefits will be required to be drug free in order to continue receiving unemployment benefits. Specifically, the new rule will require individuals who are receiving unemployment […]
This week, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals issued an important ruling on what “substantial fault” means in the context of unemployment compensation. In 2013, the Wisconsin legislature amended the unemployment insurance statutes to state that, in addition to discharge for misconduct and voluntary termination of work, employees would be denied unemployment benefits if they were […]
Although federal administrative agencies such as the National Labor Relations Board, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Department of Labor have recently pushed to expand the definition of “joint employer” under their respective laws, employers in Wisconsin can take some solace in recent legislation. Under Wisconsin Senate Bill 422, which became effective March […]
On March 1, 2016, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a decision in United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 1473 et al. v. Hormel Foods Corporation. The majority determined that the time employees spent putting on and taking off clothes and equipment for their jobs was “work” under the Wisconsin statutes and that employees should, […]
On February 7, 2016, 2015 Assembly Bill 142 became law, amending the Wisconsin Statutes related to how knives are, among other things, regulated by concealed carry permits. The law no longer requires an individual to have a concealed carry permit in order to lawfully carry a concealed knife, including a switchblade or automatic knife. There […]
Recently, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) published Draft Proposed Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation and Related Issues in order to get public input. The EEOC handles employment discrimination laws, including retaliation claims by employees who engage in “protected activity,” such as employees who complain about discrimination, file a charge of discrimination, or participate in […]