Workforce Bulletin

By David W. Garland and Allen B. Roberts

Major provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) will gain substance and vitality only with amplifying interpretive rules. On December 17 the period closed for submitting comments on rules proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to implement whistleblower provisions added in a new Section 21F to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act). With the comment period having closed, and final rules expected to be implemented in the Spring of 2011, this is a good time to take account of the proposed rules regarding the statute’s anti-retaliation provisions and their potential impact on employers.   

Dodd-Frank authorizes bounty awards to eligible whistleblowers who voluntarily provide original information to the SEC about a violation of the federal securities laws leading to a successful enforcement action and resulting in a monetary sanction exceeding $1,000,000.  It is not surprising that much of the analysis and media attention generated by Dodd-Frank concerns the bases on which the SEC will make determinations about paying potentially enormous bounty awards that can range from 10% to 30% of the amount of monetary sanctions. 

Section 21F also protects whistleblowers against retaliation by their employers, with the scope of protection circumscribed by the statutory definition of a whistleblower.  Rather than providing protection equally for internal disclosures to the employer and external disclosures to authorized agencies and authorities, as is seen commonly in whistleblower statutes, Section 21F protects only certain external disclosures. It defines a whistleblower narrowly as any individual, acting alone or jointly, who provides information relating to a violation of the securities laws to the SEC in the manner prescribed by the SEC.

By:     Michael Casey, Peter Panken, and Steven Swirsky

The new Obama National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) has signaled that it will likely be granting union organizers the right to enter employers’ premises to conduct union organizing activity. This would reverse a trend in the last few years of preserving an employer's property rights, and of confining union organizers to areas outside of an employer's private premises, including those areas open to the public, in hotels, restaurants, clubs and other hospitality venues where non-employees ...

Whistleblower considerations are likely to be especially prominent in the new year and as a new Congressional term begins, leading to the 2012 election campaign.

Please join me and other attorneys from my firm, EpsteinBeckerGreen, as we present a full-day program covering labor and employment law topics that have increasingly impacted employers over the past two years. In addition, we will offer an outlook of what we should expect in the coming two years. Our keynote speaker is Darrel Thompson, Senior Advisor to Senate Majority Harry Reid, who will offer comments concerning the ...

by Michael Kun and Doug Weiner

It is no secret that employers have been beseiged by wage-hour litigation, including wage-hour class actions and collective actions.   These lawsuits have hit the hospitality industry as hard as any other industry, perhaps harder.

It is also no secret that the persons who benefit most from these actions are often plaintiffs' counsel, who frequently receive one-third or more of any recovery.  

Now, as a result of an unprecedented new program initiated by the the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division ("WHD"), the WHD will be practically delivering ...

Please join me, Jay P. Krupin, Michael S. Kun and other attorneys from our firm, Epstein Becker Green, as we present a full-day program covering labor and employment law topics that have increasingly impacted hospitality employers over the past two years. In addition, we will offer an outlook of what we should expect in the coming two years.

Our keynote speaker is Darrel Thompson, Senior Advisor to Senate Majority Harry Reid, who will offer comments concerning the agenda of the 112th Congress. We are particularly pleased that Norah O'Donnell, MSNBC Chief Washington Correspondent, is ...

By:  Robert S. Groban, Jr.

On December 6, 2010, the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco announced that the owners of the El Balazo restaurant chain in the Bay Area had been charged in a 20-count criminal Information with tax fraud and harboring illegal aliens.  These charges arise out of a raid made by federal agents in May 2008 that resulted in the arrest of 64 illegal aliens at several of these restaurants.  The Information charges the owners with conspiracy to commit tax evasion, tax evasion, harboring illegal aliens for financial gain, and submitting false Social Security ...

By:  Robert S. Groban, Jr.

Missouri Man Convicted in Scheme to Place Undocumented Workers in Hotels

On October 28, 2010, a Missouri man was convicted by the U.S. District Court in Missouri for his role in a racketeering scheme that involved placing undocumented workers at hotels in 14 states, including several hotels in the Kansas City, Missouri, area. United States v. Dougherty, No. 4:09-CR-00143 (W.D. Mo. Oct. 10, 2010). Beth Phillips, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, indicated that “Mr. Kristin Dougherty was found guilty of racketeering, participating ...

By: Jay P. Krupin and Kara M. Maciel

Last week, on November 9, 2010, housekeepers employed by Hyatt Hotels filed complaints with OSHA alleging injuries sustained on the job. The complaints were filed in eight cities across the country, including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Long Beach, San Antonio, Honolulu and Indianapolis.  Similar OSHA actions may occur in Boston, NYC, DC, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Miami, and Orlando with higher concentrations of hotel properties. This is the first time that employees of a single private employer have filed multi-city OSHA complaints, and it ...

by Michael Kun and Aaron Olsen

In recent years, some plaintiffs' counsel bringing wage-hour claims have have made the strategic decision to bring "hybrid" class actions; that is, actions alleging both federal and state wage-hour claims. These cases can cause logistical nightmares for the courts, and great benefits for plaintiffs, for two primary reasons: (1) the standard for certification of a class is different for federal and state claims, and (2) classes in federal claims are "opt in" classes while those for state claims are "opt out" classes. Indeed, in bringing "hybrid" ...