President Biden has announced his nomination for the National Labor Relations Board seat soon to be vacated by William Emmanual. David Prouty is currently general counsel for SEIU 32BJ.
Jennifer Abruzzo, whom Biden nominated to fill the seat of general counsel to the NLRB, has refused to commit to the Senate hearing that she would recuse herself from any cases involving the Communication Workers (CWA) or any of its affiliates. As one of the top lawyers for her former employer it would be reasonable to expect her to do so, but she appears to be assuming the same defense used by former board member Craig Becker. The former AFL-CIO and SEIU lawyer argued that the affiliates were separate entities from the national union. It also appears Abruzzo outright lied to the committee when asked about her role on the NLRB transition team in the firing of former general counsel Peter Robb. She declared that she was “one of about 25 members” of said team, when documents secured by a Freedom of Information Act request show that she was actually half of a two-person team.
The Senate recently voted 50-48 to advance Abruzzo’s confirmation to a full vote.
The Senate also confirmed worker rights attorney Julie Su as Deputy Secretary of the Department of Labor by a 50-47 vote.
The House released its version of the funding bill for the DOL, asking for $2.2 billion beyond the fiscal year 2021 budget, and $400 million more than Biden’s budget request. Congress will likely default to a continuing resolution to prevent a shutdown when the money runs out on September 30th.
When a farm worker died from the extreme heat in Oregon at the end of June, the Oregon OSHA moved to enact an emergency rule to expand requirements for employers to provide shade, rest time and cool water for workers during high and extreme heat events.
More employers are open to hiring remote workers, but this expression of the modern workplace comes with a few unforeseen landmines. Case in point, a job-posting requirement resulting from a new Colorado equal pay law. The state’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act requires a pay rate to be included in any new job posting. This also applies to any company in any state outside of Colorado who may accept an applicant working remotely from Colorado. The law is not without teeth, with penalties per occurrence ranging up to $10,000. Some companies are tip-toeing around the law by adding an “except Colorado” exclusion to where they would accept remote applicants from, or including a very broad salary range with a list of qualifiers.
