10.24.2024FTC Rule On Non-Competes Is Bruised But Not Yet Beaten As FTC Appeals, While NLRB Continues To Challenge Non-CompetesIn April 2024, the FTC issued a Rule declaring invalid most existing non-compete agreements and prohibiting most employers from entering into new non-compete agreements after September 3, 2024, with few exceptions. Three lawsuits were filed challenging the FTC Rule - - two in Texas and one in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia lawsuit resulted in the court’s denying a motion to stay enforcement of the Rule on July 23, 2024. Judge Hodge then set a deadline of September 20, 2024 for the plaintiff, ATS Tree Service, to file a motion for summary judgment, a deadline that was extended twice. On October 4, ATS withdrew its Complaint, thereby ending this challenge and any right to appeal.
10.11.202410th Birthday Wishes to the Affordable Care Act’s Employer MandateThe Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. ACA affected health insurance coverage, costs and preventive care. It also established the Health Insurance Marketplace allowing individuals with certain income thresholds to obtain affordable health care regardless of employment status. The Biden Administration reported that 21.3 million people selected ACA Health Insurance Marketplace coverage in the 2024 open enrollment period.
10.09.2024Three Strikes: Lessons Learned From The ILA, Autoworkers, & Actors StrikesNow that the ILA short-lived but eventful strike is over, it is important to understand what this strike and the two noteworthy strikes of last year by the Autoworkers and the Actors-Writers have in common and what we might learn from them. Technology. Or, to put it a bit more expansively, the march of advancing technology pitted against the anxieties over job loss. The Autoworkers’ union picketed in part because of job vulnerability due to the increasing market share of electric cars, which require a different process to manufacture. Actors and Writers protested the way artificial intelligence is affecting and will affect their work. The ILA struck in part due to the threat automation presents to their jobs on the docks. The strikes were all viewed as successful by the unions because of significant wage increases. But were they successful at stemming the tide of technology or have they just plugged the dam? Put another way, what can employers do to embrace technology while also embracing its employees and maintaining labor peace?
10.08.2024Should I Stay Or Should I Go: The NLRB Weighs InOn October 7, 2024, NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo announced to her staff and the public that she intends to prosecute employers for “Stay-or-Pay” employment agreements, agreements that require a new employee to repay outlays for training if the employee leaves within a certain timeframe after being hired. The General Counsel reasons that such provisions are “presumptively unlawful” under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, which protects the rights to unionize or engage in protected concerted activity, because they force employees to remain in jobs they would otherwise leave, or deter an employee from union activity so as not to risk termination and the repayment obligation.
07.09.2024Chevron’s Passing Likely to Reshape Labor and Employment Law as SCOTUS Questions Presumption of Agency Subject Matter ExpertiseOn June 28, 2024 the Supreme Court overruled the 40-year-old landmark ruling known as Chevron, a doctrine of administrative law that has until now required courts to defer to federal agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous statutory language. By doing so, the Court has created opportunities for court challenges to agency regulations including those issued by federal labor law and equal employment law agencies.
06.25.2024SCOTUS Requires NLRB to Meet Traditional Standards for Preliminary Injunctive Relief On June 13 the U.S. Supreme Court heightened the standard a court must apply to an NLRB request for a preliminary injunction against an employer accused of violating federal labor law. In resolving a circuit split in which courts applied different tests in determining when to grant preliminary injunctive relief, the Court held that district courts should apply the traditional, four-pronged test in determining whether to grant a preliminary injunction under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act (Act). Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney.
06.21.2024The NLRB Gives An Employee Four Strikes And He's Still Not Out The National Labor Relations Act gives employees the right to engage in activities together with and on behalf of their co-workers to improve working conditions, called protected concerted activity. The question frequently arises as to the outer bounds of this right. How far can an employee take the cause?
05.13.2024FTC’s Final Rule on Non-Competes May Not be the Final WordIn a controversial move, on April 24, 2024 the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that beginning September 4, 2024, it will enforce its Final Rule banning most non-compete agreements that seek to limit a worker’s ability to change jobs. The Rule also requires employers to notify those workers who have non-compete agreements that are nullified by the Rule that these agreements are no longer enforceable once the Rule takes effect; written notices must be sent no later than September 4, 2024. The exceptions to the FTC Rule are few, and extend to non-compete agreements (i) entered into with a business’s senior executives before September 4, 2024, (ii) entered into between a buyer and a seller as part of a bona fide sale of a business, or (iii) that are part of a franchisee-franchisor relationship.
04.24.2024Patrick McGovern Shares Insights "Noncompete decision: N.J. lawyers express some concern — and a lot of caution"The decision by the Federal Trade Commission to ban most noncompete agreements — and have the ruling go into effect in 120 days — certainly sent shockwaves throughout the business community Tuesday night, hours after it was released.
On Wednesday, numerous New Jersey lawyers offered the following advice: Slow down, take a minute to gain an understanding of what this really means — and understand there is little chance this will take effect in 120 days, if at all.
Lawsuits challenging the ruling are being filed.
03.25.2024Genova Burns Congratulates Firm Attorneys Named to Super Lawyers Listings for 2024Genova Burns congratulates firm attorneys who have been named to the 2024 Super Lawyers & Rising Stars listings by Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters-owned rating service of outstanding lawyers.
Receiving special recognition, Genova Burns' Chairman Angelo J. Genova, Esq. was once again named to the New Jersey Super Lawyers Top 10 Lawyers and Top 100 Lawyers listings.
03.01.2024H-1B Lottery Process Begins On March 6thOn Wednesday, March 6, 2024, USCIS will open its H-1B cap registration process for fiscal year 2025, informally known as the H-1B Lottery. Since 2020, USCIS has implemented an electronic registration system that requires the sponsoring employer to complete a few information forms and pay a registration fee. For the past three years, the registration fee was $10. For 2024, the registration fee increases to $215 for each visa beneficiary.
01.24.2024USDOL Wage-Hour Division Final Rule on Independent Contractor Status Reverts to Pre-Trump Rule and Rejects “Core Factor” TestOn January 9, 2024 the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released a final rule that will apply beginning March 11, 2024 in determining whether a worker can be classified as an independent contractor as opposed to an employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The 2024 Rule modifies Wage and Hour Division regulations by adopting an analysis that the agency claims is more consistent with judicial precedent and the FLSA’s text and purpose than the final rule issued by the agency during the final days of the Trump Administration (2021 Rule).
01.16.2024Supreme Court Agrees To Resolve Circuit Court Conflict Over Standard For Section 10(j) Injunction In Unionization Efforts Targeting StarbucksThe boiling dispute over the unionization of baristas is heading to the Supreme Court. Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act authorizes federal courts to issue preliminary injunctions against employers that are allegedly violating federal labor law. This allows the National Labor Relations Board to seek this extraordinary relief at the outset of a case, before the employer can defend itself during the NLRB’s lengthy administrative process.
11.29.2023Heads Up To Group Health Plans: December 31 Gag Clause Attestation Deadline ApproachesThe Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 prohibits group health plans from agreeing to avoid making certain disclosures of provider-specific cost or quality-of-care information. This is referred to as the gag clause prohibition. The Act also requires health plans and insurers offering group health insurance coverage to attest annually that they are in compliance with the gag clause prohibition. The attestation requirement applies to health insurers offering group or individual coverage and to insured and self-insured group health plans, including ERISA covered plans, non-federal government plans, and church plans.
08.31.2023Risk of Cemex Bargaining Order Raises Stakes for Employers that Commit Serious Unfair Labor Practices During Union CampaignsExpressing palpable frustration with an employer that committed many unfair labor practice charges after a union filed an election petition, and acknowledging the lack of serious disincentives to engage in unlawful behavior opposing a union campaign, on August 25, 2023, the NLRB issued a new set of rules that will apply immediately to many employers and unions locked in a unionizing campaign. The major change is that the Board has determined that it has the power to impose a bargaining order on an employer that engages in serious unfair labor practice charges during an organizing campaign despite the union’s losing a Board-supervised election and without entertaining the remedy of a re-run election.
08.10.2023NLRB Applies a Shifting Burdens Analysis in Reviewing Employer Work Rules; Boeing OverruledOn August 2, 2023, the NLRB further limited employers’ flexibility in designing work rules by holding that all work rules will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and no work rules will get an automatic pass. The Board’s 3-1 decision in Stericycle Inc. holds that once the NLRB General Counsel proves that a work rule could chill employees’ exercise of Section 7 rights, there is a presumption that the rule is unlawful, which the employer can rebut only with proof that the work rule serves a lawful business interest, the rule advances the lawful interest, and a more narrowly tailored rule would not advance the interest.
08.08.2023NJDOL Issues Proposed Regulations Implementing N.J. Temporary Workers Bill of Rights ActOn July 21, 2023 the N.J. Department of Labor and Workforce Development (Department) issued long-awaited guidance regarding the Temporary Workers Bill of Rights Act. Certain provisions of the Act took effect on August 5, 2023. These regulations address Sections 1 through 7, and Section 10 of the Act only and are not technically binding on employers and temporary help service firms (THSFs) now since they are in their proposed form and the Department is accepting public comments through October 20; however, they provide additional guidance for employers and THSFs who are trying to comply with the provisions of the Act.
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