Tag: collective bargaining

Let’s Talk Turkey: Wage/Hour and Other Laws to Feast on Over Thanksgiving

We all know that employers do not receive “time off” from applicable employment laws during the holidays. To avoid unnecessary holiday headaches, be mindful of the following issues as you conduct your workplace holiday staffing and planning.

Comply with your Policies and Collective Bargaining Agreements

Remember to abide by the applicable holiday provisions of your policies, agreements, or collective bargaining agreements. Pay for unworked time on recognized holidays; how time worked on holidays is computed or paid; and eligibility requirements for receipt of holiday pay are often a matter of policy or contract. Breaching such provisions—or disparately enforcing them—can give rise to a claim, charge, or grievance.

Think Beyond your Holiday Policy—Comply with Wage Laws

Be mindful of wage payment laws when you are planning office closures to ensure that you do not run afoul of state requirements governing the time, frequency, and method of paying earned wages. Also, remember that time worked on a holiday should be counted as “hours worked” for purposes of overtime laws, regardless of whether you provide a holiday premium or other benefit.  Further, be careful about making deductions from exempt employees’ salaries for time off around the holidays so as not to jeopardize the exempt status—a company closure for the holidays is not listed among the Department of Labor’s enumerated instances of proper reasons to make deductions under the salary basis rules of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

No Break from Meal and Rest Period Laws

Even if your employees are frantically setting up holiday displays or assisting eager consumers on Black Friday, provide meal and rest periods in accordance with state law. Many states require that employers provide meal and break periods, and the frequency and timing of such periods are often dependent upon the total number of hours worked in a day. For instance, Illinois employers must allow a meal break for employees working 7.5 continuous hours or longer within 5 hours of starting work; New York’s Department of Labor guidelines specify requirements for a “noonday” meal period between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., with additional meal periods for shifts extending into specified evening hours.

Also, while bona fide meal breaks of a sufficient duration can generally be unpaid, beware that restrictions, duties, or parameters on such breaks might run afoul of your state’s law and can make a meal period compensable.

A “Blue” Christmas

If your business has operations in one of the few states that impose “Blue Law” requirements for business operations on holidays, then be aware of obligations or restrictions that might apply. For instance, if you operate in Massachusetts, then you might be required to obtain a local permit and/or be subject to extra pay or other standards for employees working on a holiday. In Rhode Island, you might be subject to an overtime pay rate on holidays or other requirements.

Be sure to check your state and local laws to confirm applicable standards.

Accommodate Observation of Holidays Due to Religious Beliefs

Finally, remember that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and many state or local laws require employers to reasonably accommodate employees’ sincerely held religious beliefs, unless doing so would cause an undue hardship. “Religion” can include not only traditional, organized religions such as Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, but also sincerely held religious beliefs that are new, uncommon, not part of a formal church or sect, or only held by a small number of people.

Thus, while your company may be closed on Christmas Day, you may need to allow an employee time off to celebrate a religious holiday that your company does not recognize. Businesses can accommodate in the form of time off, modifications to schedules, shift substitutions, job reassignments, or other modifications to workplace policies or practices.

Michigan Bill Would Bar Student-Athlete Unionization

Jackson Lewis Law firm

With a National Labor Relations Board decision on whether football players at Northwestern may proceed with their unionization efforts looming, Michigan is considering a bill that would prevent student-athletes from similarly attempting to unionize.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Al Pscholka, would prevent student-athletes at Michigan’s public universities from exercising collective bargaining rights based on their participation in a university sports team. It states, “a student participating in intercollegiate athletics on behalf of a public university in [Michigan]…is not a public employee entitled to representation or collective bargaining rights….”

Michigan has seven public universities competing at the Division I level. The bill would bar student-athletes at these universities from engaging in unionization efforts similar to the ones undertaken by the football players at Northwestern.

While none of the seven universities has faced a union organizing campaign from any of its student-athletes, prompting one opponent of the bill, Rep. Andy Shor, to describe the bill as a solution to a nonexistent problem.

“I don’t understand the tremendous rush on this,” Shor said. “We’re taking an action that addresses something that’s happening in Evanston, Illinois.”

However, if the Board finds in favor of the football players at Northwestern, universities across the country likely will face similar unionization efforts from other student-athletes. Michigan’s may be an attempt to get out in front of such efforts.

According to Ramogi Huma, the president of the organization spearheading the unionization campaign at Northwestern, the College Athletes Players Association, Michigan’s bill is “backhanded confirmation that student-athletes are state employees by including them in a list of workers who can’t bargain effectively.” However, the bill does not categorize student-athletes as employees and, indeed, it states that “individuals whose position does not have sufficient indicia of an employer-employee relationship” are also prevented under the bill from engaging in collective bargaining.

Huma also warned that if the bill passes, it would have a negative impact on the ability of Michigan’s public universities to recruit student-athletes because prospective student-athletes interested in being part of a union could elect instead to go to either private universities in Michigan or universities in states with no restrictions on their unionization efforts.

Thus far, none of the seven Division I public universities in Michigan have commented publicly on the bill. However, the bill likely is being closely followed by them as well as public universities in other states and major athletic conferences, such as the Big Ten, home to Northwestern, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State.

ARTICLE BY

Michael B. Ackerstein
OF
Jackson Lewis P.C.

Union “Death Warrant” Heading for November Ballot in Michigan?

The National Law Review recently published an article regarding Unions and Michigan Ballots written by Gerald F. Lutkus of Barnes & Thornburg LLP:

 

The union-backed “Protect Our Jobs” initiative took two steps closer Monday to being on the November ballot in Michigan.  The initiative would make collective bargaining a constitutional right under the Michigan Constitution for both public and private employees.

After the Michigan Board of Can­vassers originally stalemated on whether the initiative could go on the ballot, the Protect Our Jobs Committee filed suit and Monday afternoon, the Michigan Court of Appeals by a 2-1 vote ordered the Board of Canvassers to proceed with putting the initiative on the ballot.

Though an appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court seems likely, on Monday evening, the state Board of Canvassers certified the proposition for placement on the November ballot.  A coalition of union groups lead by the AFL-CIO, the United Auto Workers and the Michigan Education Association had previously submitted petitions with nearly 700,000 signatures — twice the number needed.

A Reuters News Service report quotes critics who have attacked the proposition as a “death warrant” for Michigan’s economy. Sara Wurfel, a spokeswoman for Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, told Reuters that the governor remained opposed to the measure because “it has potentially far-reaching implications and ramifications to numerous existing statutes that would turn back progress and appear to go well beyond what paid petition gatherers portrayed.”

© 2012 BARNES & THORNBURG LLP