On December 22, 2021, the New York State Department of Labor (NY DOL) issued the long-awaited proposed rule (Proposed Rule) regarding the workplace safety committees that are required by the New York HERO Act (HERO Act). While there is no current effective date for the Proposed Rule (which is first subject to a public comment period and a February 9, 2022 hearing), employers should become familiar with, and consider taking actions to timely comply with the Proposed Rule should it be adopted as currently drafted.
The HERO Act
In May of 2021, New York responded to workplace safety and health issues presented by the COVID-19 pandemic by enacting the HERO Act. Since that time, the State has amended the HERO Act to allow the NY DOL additional time to create model safety standards for infectious disease exposure plans (“safety plans”) mandated by the HERO Act and to allow employers additional time for compliance.
Featured in #WorkforceWednesday: As businesses across the United States open up, workers may increasingly turn to unions to help support their safety. Employers should take steps to properly prepare for this resurgence in union activity. Attorney RyAnn Hooper explains more.
This Employment Law This Week® Monthly Rundown discusses the most important developments for employers in July 2019. Both the video and the extended audio podcast are now available.
This episode includes:
- State Legislation Heats Up
- NLRB Overturns Another Long-Standing Precedent
- SCOTUS October Term 2018 Wraps Up
- Tip of the Week: How inclusion and trust can increase innovation in the workplace
See below to watch the full episode - click here for story details, the video, and the extended audio podcast.
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In the new issue of Take 5, our colleagues examine important and evolving issues confronting owners, operators, and employers in the hospitality industry:
Featured on Employment Law This Week: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit backs the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in an outsourcing dispute.
The NLRB found that a management company violated the National Labor Relations Act when it outsourced the cleaning staff of a hotel that it managed. The NLRB found evidence that the outsourcing decision was related to the worker’s interest in union representation. The NLRB rejected the company’s argument that the decision was due to declining guest satisfaction, concluding that the decision was at least, in part ...
A recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit illustrates the potential pitfalls of outsourcing in the face of a union campaign, as well as the steep hurdle employers face in overturning a decision of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”). In Remington Lodging & Hospitality, LLC v. NLRB, the Fifth Circuit enforced an NLRB order holding that a hotel management company’s decision to outsource the hotel’s housekeeping department was motivated at least in part by anti-union animus and therefore violated Section 8(a)(3) of the National Labor ...
A United States District Court in Texas has refused to dismiss a law suit challenging OSHA’s practice of allowing union representatives and organizers to serve as “employee representatives” in inspections of non-union worksites. If the Court ultimately sustains the plaintiff’s claims, unions will lose another often valuable organizing tool that has provided them with visibility and access to employees in connection with organizing campaigns.
The National Federation of Independent Business (‘NFIB”) filed suit to challenge an OSHA Standard Interpretation ...
By Paul H. Burmeister and Eric J. Conn
On April 5, 2013, OSHA published a formal Interpretation Letter (dated February 21, 2013) addressing whether, pursuant to OSHA’s regulation at 29 C.F.R. 1903.8(c) (Representatives of Employers and Employees), employees at a worksite without a collective bargaining agreement may authorize a person affiliated with a union or community organization to act as the employees’ representative during proceedings under the OSH Act, including compliance inspections. OSHA responded affirmatively.
29 C.F.R. 1903.8(c) provides:
"The representative(s) authorized by employees shall be an employee(s) of the employer. However,
if in the judgment of the Compliance Safety and Health Officer, good cause has been shown why accompaniment by a third party who is not an employee of the employer (such as an industrial hygienist or a safety engineer) is reasonably necessary to the conduct of an effective and thorough physical inspection of the workplace, such third party may accompany the Compliance Safety and Health Officer during the inspection."
OSHA’s April 5, 2013 Interpretation Letter clarified its interpretation of the types of non-employees it considers to be “reasonably necessary to the conduct of an effective and thorough physical inspection,” by stretching the meaning beyond what has historically been understood to include only individual’s with relevant technical expertise to aid in the inspection, such as those listed as examples in the language of the regulation; i.e., “an industrial hygienist or a safety engineer.” This interpretation moves away from that commonsense reading, and expressly invites the involvement of non-technical union representatives, even from unions who have not been elected to represent the workforce.
OSHA broke the question down into two parts. First, OSHA stated affirmatively that the OSH Act recognizes the role of an employee representative to represent employees’ interests in enforcement related matters. Specifically, the employee representative, OSHA asserts, need not be a co-worker at the worksite. The employee representative could include any person (including community organization members) who acts in a bona fide representative capacity.
Second, OSHA clarified that non-union employees may have a union representative act as their employee representative, under Section 8 of the OSH Act. However, the union representative must be duly authorized by the employee to act as his representative. 
OSHA also noted under 29 CFR § 1903.8 that OSHA may exercise its discretion in allowing a non-employee representative, but generally would allow it when the non-employee representative may make a positive contribution to the inspection. For example, the letter specifically cites non-employee representatives who are skilled in evaluating similar working conditions or are fluent in another language that may be helpful.
by: Adam C. Abrahms, James S. Frank, Kara M. Maciel, and Steven M. Swirsky
President Obama has taken action designed to bolster the National Labor Relations Board’s continuing move to bolster unions and take the National Labor Relations Act further into non-union workplaces. On April 9, 2013, President Obama announced his plan to submit three more nominees to serve the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”). If these and the two other pending nominations are confirmed this would bring the NLRB to its full complement of five Members.
These new nominations – who must be ...
By: Allen B. Roberts
I wrote the February 2013 version of Take 5 Views You Can Use, a newsletter published by the Labor and Employment practice of Epstein Becker Green. In it, I discuss an alternative view of five topics that are likely to impact hospitality employers in 2013 and beyond. One topic involved the potential for labor organizing by pop-up unions in break-out units.
Despite some perceptions of cohesiveness and political acumen, influence and wherewithal following the 2012 election cycle, labor unions represent only about 7.3 percent of the private sector ...
By Paul Burmeister*
The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has ruled that negotiations between the Hotel Bel-Air and UNITE HERE Local 11 were not at impasse when the employer implemented its last, best final offer, which included severance payments to union employees. Hotel Bel-Air, 358 NLRB 152 (September 27, 2012). The NLRB upheld the ALJ’s order for the employer to bargain with the Union and to rescind all the signed severance agreements containing a waiver of future employment with the Hotel Bel-Air.
The Hotel Bel-Air is a luxury hotel located in Los Angeles. The Hotel ...
By: Paul Rosenberg
The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) seems intent upon helping unions organize employees. It continues to pass rules, issue decisions, or announce new policies which will almost certainly facilitate union organizing. The latest example occurred on March 22 when the NLRB announced that in the next two weeks it is launching an “educational” website aimed at informing non-union employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). In conjunction with this unprecedented website the NLRB is preparing brochures which will ...
By: Paul Rosenberg
As described in our blog on January 5, 2012, the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) new rules governing union elections introduce a host of changes which will place employers at a disadvantage. The new rules will go into effect on April 30, 2012, subject to a legal challenge pending in federal court. However, they are seemingly just the beginning of the NLRB’s concerted effort to drastically change a process which has been in place for several decades. A recent decision ignoring 75 years of precedence is illustrative.
By: Evan Rosen
As Hospitalty Labor and Employment Law Blog readers are aware, on August 30, 2011, the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) issued a rule requiring employers to post notices informing employees of their right to join or form a union. We blogged about the impact of the notice and its requirements on hospitality employers here. The rule was originally supposed to go into effect in November, but was subsequently pushed back to January 31, 2012 as a result of mounting criticism against the rule. Indeed, several lawsuits have been filed by business ...
By: Paul Rosenberg
On December 9, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (“the Court”) refused to enforce a National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) decision that a hotel unlawfully suspended hospitality workers who engaged in a work stoppage. Fortuna Enters. LP v. NLRB, D.C. Cir., No. 10-1272 (December 9, 2011). In this case, UNITE HERE – the largest hospitality union in the country – was seeking to organize employees of the hotel. While the union organizing drive was ongoing, the hotel suspended an employee pending an investigation into whether ...
By: Evan Rosen
Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) voted, 2-1, to approve its Resolution to drastically amend the rules governing union elections. While the Board’s stated reason for the amendment is to reduce unnecessary litigation, it is apparent that this purpose is a sham, and that the real reason is to make it significantly easier for unions to organize employees, especially those in the highly targeted hospitality industry.
The Board did not vote on the entire proposal detailed in their June 22, 2011Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, but rather ...
OSHA’s recent string of hotel inspections in response to formal safety and health complaints filed by UNITE-HERE and others on behalf of hotel housekeepers is under serious scrutiny from the House of Representatives Subcommittee that oversees OSHA’s operations. OSHA leadership is defending its decision to inspect hotels, and is signaling that OSHA will not shy away from inspecting employers in the midst of organizing campaigns and/or contentious bargaining over labor agreements.
Over the last year, OSHA received a number of formal, written ...
By: Kara M. Maciel
On August 25, 2011, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) adopted a final rule to require all employers to post a notice of employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). The required posting provides information to employees about the right to organize a union, bargain collectively, and engage in protected concerted activity – as well as the right to refrain from such activity. Significantly, this posting requirement is required for all hospitality employers – large and small -- regardless of whether your operations are ...
By: Kara M. Maciel and Mark M. Trapp
On August 23, 2011 the Washington D.C. area experienced a 5.9 magnitude earthquake. A week later, a “labor law earthquake” of far greater magnitude had its epicenter in a federal agency in D.C. In the coming weeks and months, its aftershocks will be felt by unprepared employers, particularly those operating hotels, restaurants, spas and clubs in the hospitality industry.
In an opinion that America’s largest private sector labor union called a“monumental victor[y] … for unions,” the National Labor Relations Board ...
As you may know, the authors of this blog are attorneys at Epstein Becker Green, a national law firm with approximately 300 lawyers practicing in ten offices throughout the U.S.
On July 19, 2011, Epstein Becker Green’s Jay P. Krupin testified before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) concerning the Board’s dramatic rulemaking proposals to modify the representation election process. The firm was one of only a handful of management-side firms invited to provide testimony on behalf of clients at this first-ever NLRB hearing.
Vigorously arguing against the proposed ...
By: Kara M. Maciel and Evan Rosen
In recent weeks the Obama Administration’s National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) has been very active in soliciting public comments and amicus briefs on a wide range of decisions and proposed regulations that could drastically change the labor relations landscape. One of these topics are the rules surrounding the scope of union solicitation on a non-unionized employer’s private property.
We have received many inquiries from our clients about the Board's review of whether to change the solicitation rules. In light of the ...
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 ...
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