Posts tagged employees
Over 11,000 L.A. workers plan to strike, hoping to ‘shut down’ city
August 8, 2023 // Mayor Karen Bass (D) said Saturday that the city is committed to ensuring a fair contract for its workers. “City workers are vital to the function of services for millions of Angelenos every day and to our local economy. They deserve fair contracts and we have been bargaining in good faith with SEIU 721 since January,” Bass said. “The City will always be available to make progress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.” Los Angeles International Airport and the Port of Los Angeles did not return requests for comment regarding the possible disruptions to their operations that the strike could cause.
NIH researchers say agency seeks to block unionization effort
August 7, 2023 // The agency is arguing that postdocs and graduate students aren’t employees, according to union organizers Early-career researchers who work in labs operated by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) have hit a roadblock on their way to unionizing. In June, a group of postdocs, graduate students, and postbaccalaureate researchers asked the agency that oversees the certification of unions by federal employees, the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), for permission to hold an election to determine whether early-career researchers at NIH are in favor of forming a union. But on Monday, the organizers say, they were told that NIH had submitted paperwork to FLRA arguing that many of the union’s potential members are not employees and don’t have standing to form a union. Union representatives also declined to send Science the entirety of the document NIH submitted to FLRA. But they did share one excerpt, which argued that most of the potential union’s 4800 likely members cannot be considered employees. “The Agency is of the view that individuals in all categories appointed under the CRTA [Cancer Research Training Award] and IRTA [Intramural Research Training Award] authorities, i.e., all categories other than Clinical Fellows, Research Fellows, and Senior Research Fellows, are not employees under the Statute,” the document states, according to the union.
Op-ed: BIDEN’S NEW DEAL: GOVERNMENT STACKED FOR UNIONS
July 24, 2023 // With Democrats facing tough midterm elections, expect more union giveaways while still controlling Congress. Love it or hate it, the federal government is pushing its thumb firmly on the Union side of the scale.
The Cyberpicket: A New Frontier for Labor Law
June 12, 2023 // a cyberpicket would alert potential customers to a labor dispute and put them to the choice of whether to continue transacting with the business. Instead of encountering rows of workers outfitted with signs and pamphlets, however, e-shoppers would come across a notification that materializes at a site’s landing page — the business’s “entrance.” The technology needed to implement a cyberpicket breaks no new ground. In fact, it’s already widely utilized by online businesses for compliance with the European Union’s (EU) “Cookie Law,” which requires that websites give visitors the right to refuse data tracking.14 So-called “consent banners” — now familiar fixtures for netizens across the pond15 — present a tried-and-true template for the cyberpicket. Not only is the cyberpicket a viable alternative to its in-person counterpart, it’s a right owed to employees of online businesses. This Note sharpens the concept of a cyberpicket by expanding on its legal justification, expected benefits, and possible challenges.
Opinion: Connecticut Business Sickened by Bad LABOR BILLS
June 6, 2023 // Two pernicious bills, S.B. 6668 and S.B. 1178, mandate expanded paid sick time for employees of small businesses. If passed, the General Assembly would effectively be functioning as a labor union, completely ignoring their obligation to taxpayers. The language in both bills is almost identical, with S.B. 1178 expanding the way employees can utilize paid sick leave beyond their immediate family. The bill requires employers to allow for paid time off for employees to care for someone the employees themselves determine “whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of any such family relationship.”
What is the Employee Rights Act, and how would it advance worker freedom?
April 21, 2023 // Unlike the PRO Act – which, imbued with a dated and rigid workplace vision that is increasingly displacing American workers – the ERA would empower workers to seize more opportunity and take greater control of their futures.
Opinion: Solving Gig Worker Problem will Open Up the Future of Work
December 21, 2022 // The costs and legal liability associated with classifying gig workers as employees would cripple the gig economy and cancel out all the productivity gains experienced over the last decade since the “gig economy” was first coined. This problem has puzzled policy wonks, judges, and legislators alike. The issue comes down to a simple, but loaded question: are gig workers employees or independent contractors? If gig workers were employees, platforms would be subject to legal and financial liability that would necessitate reducing worker flexibility. It would also be limited in the number of platforms they could work for at any given time. If gig workers were considered independent contractors, it removes this liability and maintains flexibility.
Starbucks settles its first legal complaint with union
October 5, 2022 // “We’re pleased Workers United agreed that there was no wrongdoing and has withdrawn the charges,” said a Starbucks spokesperson, referring to a clause from the settlement expressly denying wrongdoing. “We look forward to meeting them at the bargaining table in good faith to move the process forward.” On the same day that the legal settlement was announced, Starbucks released an update to its family benefits for all employees on a company benefits plan, including those who are unionized.
This fresh blow to newspapers — and our democracy — must be stopped | Editorial
October 4, 2022 // For nearly two centuries, and across the country, the job has been done by contractors who are not classified as employees of the newspapers. But now the state Department of Labor is strictly enforcing a law that’s been on the books since the FDR era, upending tradition by ordering these workers to be treated as employees. That means newspapers, or the firms they hire to handle delivery, would have to pay taxes to cover benefits like unemployment and disability, just as they do for full-time employees. It would cost the Star-Ledger, already diminished by layoffs and buyouts, about $3 million a year. The state’s intentions are good, even if its swing is a bit wild. This is part of a movement, mostly in progressive states, to combat the spread of abuses related to contract work. It was inspired first by the growing use of lower-paid contract workers on constructions sites, many of them working full-time and standing shoulder to shoulder with regular employees. And contract work has exploded in the gig economy, at companies like Uber and Grubhub.
Rideshare, retailers brace for tough U.S. independent contractor rule
September 28, 2022 // The meetings at the White House were one-sided, with officials at OIRA letting groups speak and not participating or asking follow-up questions, several employer sources said. They are interpreting that as a sign the Biden administration's mind is made up. Some of the groups have been trying, and failing, to convince the White House that any broad rule would hurt workers who want to remain independent and have flexibility...More than one-third of U.S. workers, or nearly 60 million people, performed some sort of freelance work.