Pautsch, Spognardi & Baiocchi Legal Group LLP
Monday Morning Minute
In This Issue
Labor Relations Law Quiz
EEOC Fiscal Year End Complete and Harasment Charges are "Up"
                  October 8, 2018
 
COMMON SENSE SOLUTIONS
FOR
YOUR CHANGING WORKPLACE
                      

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LABOR RELATIONS LAW QUIZ
American labor law contains many "traps for the unwary,"--------principles of law that pose dire consequences for employers who act without obeying the law affecting their conduct. These traps affect both unionized and non-union employers. We have developed a short TRUE/FALSE quiz to focus on some of these traps:

TRUE OR FALSE
 
1. A company that has a collective bargaining contract need not bargain with the union before it implements a drug testing policy.
 
2.  A company can prohibit employees from using its email system to solicit other employees to join a union.
 
3.  If a union representative comes to a company with union authorization cards signed by all of the employees that work at the company and demands to be recognized, that company must recognize and bargain with the union within 30 days.
 
4.  A company that has a collective bargaining contract need not bargain with the union before it starts video taping workplace activities.
 
5. Supervisors are prohibited from expressing their views, opinions and arguments about unions in the workplace as this is considered interference with protected concerted activity or unlawful harassment.
 
6.  Supervisors must not make promises or grant benefits in an effort to thwart union organizing at their company.
 
7. In response to active union organizing, it is a "best practice" and lawful for an employer to quickly develop and implement an effective "NO SOLICITATION/NO DISTRIBUTION POLICY".
 
8.  Supervisors and managers can tell employees that the employer will shut down its operations if a union gets into the company.
 
9.  A company that has a collective bargaining contract need not bargain with the union before it moves bargaining unit work to another location during the term of the contract.
 
10. A company that has a collective bargaining contract need not bargain with the union before it shuts down its operations during the term of the contract.
 
We will provide the answers along with comments to each of these queries next week. Should you need an answer before then, just send us a note. 
EEOC FISCAL YEAR END AND HARASSMENT CHARGES
Fiscal year for the EEOC ended on 9/30/2018 and while the numbers have not been finalized, it is no big surprise that harassment charges as well as settlements lead the "news" at this organization. 

Take a look at a brief overview of the 2018 fiscal year regarding harassment and the EEOC's involvement: 

  • The EEOC filed 66 lawsuits challenging workplace harassment, 41 of which alleged sexual harassment. This is more than a 50 percent increase in suits challenging sexual harassment over FY 2017.  EEOC's lawsuits sought to protect a wide-range of employees across the entire country, including servers, nurses, administrative assistants, customer service staff, truck drivers, welders, and other workers at cleaners and country clubs, sports bars and airlines, in factories, health care and grocery stores. In both June and August, the EEOC coordinated the filing of federal court cases around the country as a reminder that harassment violates the law.
  • Charges filed with the EEOC alleging sexual harassment increased by more than 12 percent from fiscal year 2017.
  • For charges alleging harassment, reasonable cause findings increased to nearly 1,200 in FY 2018 compared to 970 in FY 2017. Successful conciliations reached nearly 500 up from 348 in FY 2017.
  • The EEOC recovered nearly $70 million for the victims of sexual harassment through administrative enforcement and litigation in FY 2018, up from $47.5 million in FY 2017.

the above taken from the EEOC website/newsroom.

 

Employers should continue to push this as an area of audit and compliance so as not to become part of this trending [employment] statistic.  

PAUTSCH, SPOGNARDI & BAIOCCHI LEGAL GROUP is a law firm dedicated to finding common sense, affordable solutions for businesses to labor, employment, human resource and general business needs. With over 75 combined years of experience among its 3 founding partners in these areas, we can assist businesses in developing custom solutions to today's tough issues.  And as litigators, who combined have over thousands of trials  "under their belts" before state and federal courts as well as administrative agencies (such as the NLRB) you will find no better advocate and partner. 

 

For more information on the firm, please go to our website at www.psb-attorneys.com or Lisa at lab@psb-attorneys.com