Insights on employment law for today’s employer
By Phyllis Karasov and Silas Petersen
On October 26, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a final rule redefining “joint employers” under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Approved three-to-one along partisan lines, the new rule mirrors the Board’s proposed rule that was published in September 2022. The new rule expands the definition…
In previous posts, we have discussed changes enacted by the Minnesota legislature regarding employment law. The legislature also passed a number of bills which, although perhaps less significant than the ban on non-compete agreements, legalizing cannabis and providing paid sick and safe time, are still important for employers to know.
Minnesota…
On May 25, 2023, Governor Walz signed Minnesota’s Paid Family and Medical Leave bill into law. Minnesota will join 11 other states and Washington D.C. with paid leave laws. Eligible workers will be able to begin receiving benefits on January 1, 2026, and employers will begin contributing to the program on the same date.
The…
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non-compete clauses with its workers and provide those workers with written notice that the non-competes have been rescinded.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…
