Regina Honey was pregnant with her second child and experiencing pre-term labor. Her doctor ordered bed rest for about two weeks. When Ms. Honey was ready to return to work at Dignity Health, she was told her employment was terminated. About two months later she was reinstated. However, the pre-term labor returned and her doctor ordered bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. Ms. Honey remained on bed rest until her son was born in July 2010. When the doctor approved her return to work in September 2010, she was never scheduled to return. After several attempts to reach …
Recent Ruling May Allow for Unionization Among NCAA Athletes
The board of directors of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has granted the largest college athletic programs in the country with partial autonomy. The move, approved by the board in a 16-2 vote, could allow members of the NCAA’s five wealthiest conferences to provide benefits to student-athletes beyond scholarships and increased health care coverage. This measure comes in the midst of controversy regarding the NCAA and whether or not athletes should be entitled to compensation for the millions of dollars in revenue they help generate for their schools. Earlier this year, football players at Northwestern University in Illinois attempted …
NLRB Decisions Invalidated by Supreme Court
In Noel Canning v. NLRB, the Supreme Court issued a labor law decision most surprising because of its unanimity. The Supreme Court held on June 26, 2014, that President Obama’s controversial January 2012 appointments of three members to the National Labor Relations Board (Sharon Block, Terence F. Flynn, and Richard Griffin) were invalid exercises of his office under the Constitution. The NLRB in that case had ruled against an employer in an unfair labor practice charge. The employer appealed, asserting that because three of the nation’s five Board members had been placed on the Board by the President as “recess …
Good News For State-Fund Employers – Prospective Billing Is On The Way!
You have likely received word from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation of a major change coming in the manner in which it establishes workers’ compensation premiums. In July of 2015, the retrospective billing system for state-fund employers will be a thing of the past, as the Bureau moves to a prospective system. Most importantly, though, be advised that as a result of that transition, and to avoid a situation where employers are paying premiums twice during the overlap, the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation is actually granting an eight month premium credit for all private state-fund employers in July of …
Supreme Court Deals Another Blow to Unions
The Supreme Court is issuing labor law decisions at a fast and furious pace this week. Today’s decision, Harris v. Quinn, struck down an Illinois law that had previously required non-union Medicaid homecare providers to pay fees equivalent to union dues to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a public employee union. The rationale had been that such employees should be required to pay fees to help cover the union’s costs of collective bargaining. Although it invalided the Illinois regulation, the Supreme Court did not go so far as to overturn wholesale a long-standing precedent allowing other unions to impose …
Be Prepared for a Workers’ Compensation Audit
The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation routinely conducts audits on state fund employers to confirm that payroll records submitted to the Bureau are accurate and that appropriate workers’ compensation coverage is being provided for the types of employees in a particular business. Following the audit, the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation could determine that there is a discrepancy between a company’s estimated premium and the actual/appropriate premium based upon current employee records. Under such circumstances, the company may be obligated to pay up to two years in past due premiums. As the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation website indicates (www.Ohio.BWC.com), Bureau auditors …
8th District Court of Appeals Agrees with Common Pleas Court that BWC Group Rating is Unconstitutional
We had previously reported, back in late 2012, that the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas determined that the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation’s group rating programs were illegal. That decision was appealed to the 8th District Court of Appeals, which issued its decision/analysis of the situation on May 15, 2014. The 8th District has agreed with the Common Pleas Court that the group rating programs are unconstitutional and, as a result, state-fund employers in Ohio may be entitled to hundreds of millions of dollars in premium rebates. The gist of the 8th District’s very lengthy opinion is that the group …
Validity of 2012-13 NLRB Decisions Hanging in the Balance
In what is more than likely to be one of the most momentous legal controversies of 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to render a decision that reaches the very foundations of the Republic – and could potentially invalidate hundreds of official actions of the National Labor Relations Board and an even greater number of rules and quasi-judicial determinations by a host of other presidential appointees. On January 13, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning. The case involves an employer’s challenge to a determination of the National Labor Relations …
No Decision on Union Election Agreements
Although it is not the normal response by management, there are some circumstances when employers are not opposed to the unionization of their workers. This has certainly not been our experience, but some executives feel the union apparatus could decrease their burdens in handling personnel matters. Others may survey the situation and, seeing union certification as inevitable, opt to try forming a working relationship with the union as early as possible rather than fighting an uphill campaign against it. This leads some employers to actually enter into agreements with unions to facilitate the election and certification process. However, employers who …
NLRB Reignites Efforts on “Ambush Elections Rule”
Union elections are a disruptive time for any company. While employers do have an opportunity to campaign against union certification prior to the union certification votes, many managers and human resources professionals would argue that the entire process is skewed in favor of unions. This is why it was particularly troubling in February 2014 when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) signaled its intent to once again consider the expedited elections procedures it previously attempted to enact in 2011. On February 5, 2014, the NLRB announced its intent to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking setting forth an amended version …