Dynamic Lists - ADVOCACY UPDATES

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a new “Representative-Case Procedures” final rule on August 24, 2023, affecting union representation elections. This new rule reduces the time between when a petition to conduct an election is filed and when the union election is held. Elections that use a short timeline are dubbed “quickie” or “ambush” elections because of the short window of opportunity for an employer to respond to the petition before the election occurs. This new rule restores the timeline created by a 2014 rule and eliminates subsequent changes made in 2019 that had extended the timeline. The new rule is set to take effect on December 26, 2023.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a decision on August 2, 2023, in Stericycle, Inc., that will have a direct effect on how companies create rules and policies that could impact employees’ organizing and other union-related protected activities. In the decision, the NLRB created a new standard for interpreting company rules and policies. This standard has been a political hot potato with a long history of being changed depending on which political party has the majority of seats on the NLRB.

The Department of Labor (DOL) proposed revisions to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) on August 30, 2023. The most significant proposed revision to the FLSA expands who may receive overtime compensation, and the threshold salary up to which overtime pay is required. The proposed revisions also clarify how an employee’s regular rate of pay is calculated, identifying which perks and benefits cannot be figured into that pay rate.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed a new rule on August 29, 2023, that would allow any third-party, non-employee, union representative to accompany an OSHA inspector as they conduct an inspection. This includes companies that are not a union shop. Currently, the rule is that a union representative may only accompany an OSHA inspector if that person is an employee of the company that is being inspected.