Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives

HuntonAK labor and employment partner Emily Burkhardt Vicente was selected as a 2022 visionary in the Business of Law: Trends, Updates and Visionaries magazine produced by the Los Angeles Times for the second consecutive year.

On June 24, 2022, the NLRB sought an order forcing an employer who refused to negotiate with a certified union to pay back wages and benefits to employees that they allegedly could have earned absent the delay in bargaining during the time the employer appealed the NLRB’s certification of the union as the exclusive bargaining representative in federal court. In Pathway Vet Alliance, LLC, the General Counsel for the NLRB made the common allegation that the employer violated 8(a)(5) and (1) of the NLRA by refusing to recognize and bargain with a disputed but  certified union representative of its employees. What is noteworthy about this case is that Counsel for the General Counsel’s Motion for Summary Judgment urged the NLRB to “use this case as a vehicle to overrule its decision in Ex-Cell-O Corp.” and order the employer to “make the bargaining-unit employees whole for the lost opportunity to engage in collective bargaining.”

The National Labor Relations Board (Board) announced on June 21, 2022, that it intends to engage in rulemaking with respect to several subjects. One of those which was revealed to be a subject of rulemaking was joint-employer status under the National Labor Relations Act (Act).

Our prior post discussed how Democrats in the House of Representatives sought to amend the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA) as part of new proposed legislation called the “Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act”. It concluded that the legislation, if enacted, would increase both the frequency and severity of not only FLSA collective actions but also of investigations and enforcement actions by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

Please join Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP for a complimentary webinar:

OSHA 2022 – Mid-Year Report

Thursday, June 23, 2022

3:00–4:00 pm ET

2:00–3:00 pm CT

12:00–1:00 pm PT

Please join labor and employment attorneys, Susan Wiltsie, partner, and Reilly Moore, associate, in a discussion on the current state of OSHA regulatory initiatives, enforcement efforts, agency trends and other developments, including COVID-19.

Presenters:

Susan F. Wiltsie, Partner, Hunton Andrews Kurth

Reilly C. Moore, Associate, Hunton Andrews Kurth

Additional information available ...

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court in Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon unanimously held that a ramp supervisor who frequently handled cargo for an interstate airline company was exempt from coverage under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) because she belonged to a “class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.”  9 U.S.C. § 1.

We are pleased to announce that the Labor and Employment team at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP has been recognized as practice leaders in Immigration and Labor and Employment by the 2022 Legal 500 US Guide. Twelve individual lawyers on HuntonAK’s Labor and Employment and Immigration Team also were acknowledged.

On June 15, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision on Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana (Case No. 20-1573) reversing the California Court of Appeal’s decision to affirm the denial of Viking’s motion to compel arbitration Moriana’s “individual” PAGA claim and to dismiss her other PAGA claims.

Earlier this year, the Office of the General Counsel (GC) of the  National Labor Relations Board (Board) issued an Advice Memorandum in Case 05-CA-281089 instructing Board Region 5  to issue a complaint alleging  that the employer, LT Transportation (a shuttle bus transportation provider), violated Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act, when it banned nonemployee union organizers from boarding its shuttles because of their identity as union organizers. The GC also directed the Region to use the case as a vehicle to argue that that two Board precedents, UPMC, 368 NLRB No. 2 (June 14, 2019) and Kroger, 368 NLRB No. 64 (2019), should be overruled because, in the view of the GC, they narrowed employee rights set forth in two U.S. Supreme Court cases, NLRB v. Stowe Spinning Co., 336 U.S. 226, 233 (1949) and NLRB v. Babcock & Wilcox Co., 351 U.S. 105 (1956).

Congratulations to our team and eleven attorneys for Chambers USA 2022 rankings!

The team was recognized in the following areas:

• Immigration – District of Columbia – Band 3
• Labor & Employment – California – Highly Recommended – Band 2
• Labor & Employment – District of Columbia – Band 4
• Labor & Employment – Texas – Band 5
• Labor & Employment – Virginia – Band 1

Individual recognitions were received by:

• Ian P. Band (District of Columbia)
• M. Brett Burns (California)
• Terence G. Connor (Senior Statesperson - Florida)
• Juan C. Enjamio (Florida)
• Kurt G. Larkin (Virginia)