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The Minnesota legislature has enacted a statute rendering noncompetition agreements in the employment context unenforceable, provided they are entered into after the effective date.  Governor Walz is expected to sign the bill.  The legislation applies to all future covenants not to compete and will take effect on July 1, 2023.  Consequently, this new statute does not apply to…

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a significant decision threatening the viability of provisions routinely included in employment settlement agreements.  In the McLaren Macomb decision, the NLRB ruled that an employer violated the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”) when it offered severance agreements to 11 terminated employees containing confidentiality, nondisclosure and non-disparaging provisions.…

On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a proposed rule which, if enacted, would ban most non-compete clauses in employment contracts. The rule would also require employers to rescind existing non-compete clauses with its workers and provide those workers with written notice that the non-competes have been rescinded.

This rule, if enacted…

The 2023 Minnesota Legislative session has begun and two legislative employment proposals that have been in the mix in previous years may finally be enacted because of Democratic control of both chambers of the legislature. It is expected that some form of these two proposals will become law this session. The first would create a…

Employers often require employees to sign agreements which include restrictive covenants.  “Restrictive covenants” include noncompete agreements, non-solicitation restrictions (prohibiting solicitation of customers and/or employees), and confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements. These agreements can be important to protect the employer from the employee working for a competitor, or disrupting customer relationships after the employer has invested in…

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) made two announcements recently that should be of concern to all employers with employees not represented by a union.  The first announcement was made by the NLRB General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, who announced that she will seek to overturn an employer’s ability to enforce mandatory employee meetings during an…

Last week, I wrote a blog post predicting that President Biden may be requiring project labor agreements (PLAs) on projects funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Acts, effective November 15, 2021 (link here).  That prediction has now become reality.

On Friday, February 4, 2022, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14063 (EO…

As many construction contractors are aware, the new Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, effective on November 15, 2021, includes significant monies for transportation, roads, bridges, rail, and other infrastructure construction.  President Biden has encouraged public governmental agencies to use project labor agreements (PLAs) on these government-funded infrastructure projects.

What is a PLA?

A PLA requires…

Most of our readers are aware that on November 9, 2021, OSHA issued an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) requiring covered employers (employers with 100 or more employees) to require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.  The ETS allows employers to decide whether to adopt weekly COVID-19 testing and mask mandates in lieu of vaccinations.  On…

Update 11/8/21 –  On Saturday, a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Louisiana issued a  stay of enforcement of the OSHA rule mandating vaccines for employees of large businesses. The ruling blocks the OSHA rule as outlined below. We are following the situation and will keep you updated.  …