• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Labor Relations / Unions

Take Broad Look for ADA Accommodation

11/01/2001

Q. If we let some employees in a department return to work in a light-duty capacity, can we deny other employees that same option? We need to do this because the department no longer can operate properly with half its staff on medical leave or limited to light duty due to medical conditions. The union contract says that when an employee is eligible for medical leave, six months must pass before we may terminate the employee. —D.W., Illinois

You Can Change Workers’ Hours on Short Notice

11/01/2001

Q. Can we change employees’ work hours on short notice by altering their schedules? Also, we have a part-time employee who’s been employed for a few months working 32 hours a week. She’s preparing to return to work after recovering from a car accident. Can we reduce her work hours? —J.L., Maryland

Workers feel threatened …?

10/01/2001
Nearly half of black workers say they have experienced workplace discrimination, and nearly a quarter of women employees say they have been sexually harassed on the job, according to a new …

Supreme Court rejects NLRB test for supervisor status

07/01/2001
Whom do you consider to be supervisors at your company? It’s a question you’ll have to take a fresh look at in light of a new U.S. Supreme Court decision….

Workers Can Limit Payments to Union

07/01/2001

Q. We recently lost a union election, 6-3. What can employees who did not want any part of the union do now? Is there any way for them to get out of this? —K.F., Pennsylvania

Withdrawing recognition of unions just got harder

06/01/2001
The National Labor Relations Board recently made it more difficult for employers to withdraw recognition of an incumbent union. For the past 50 years, employers needed only a good-faith belief …

Growing threat: Courts uphold broad interpretation of retaliation

05/01/2001
John McMenemy was a lieutenant in the Rochester Fire Department as well as a union officer. He claimed the city twice passed him over for promotion because, while in his union …

State may trump your CBA on family leave.

05/01/2001
Under Oscar Mayer’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA), paid sick leave doesn’t start until at least the fourth day of absence. But Wisconsin’s labor department says that under the state’s family leave …

What equals a disability under the ADA? Supreme Court to rule

05/01/2001
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to tackle the vexing question of just how serious an impairment has to be before it’s protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Courts …

Unon ‘salt’ entitled to double pay.

04/01/2001
When Ferguson Electric refused to hire David Carr because he was a union organizer, the company was found guilty of unfair labor practices and ordered to pay back wages. The company …