I’ve been writing this blog for so long that at the time I started, podcasts weren’t really a thing. (Neither were law blogs, but that’s a different post.) Last year, my colleague Gabe Jiran hosted a season of From Lawyer to Employer — a new podcast at my firm, Shipman & Goodwin. The first season tackled everything from separation agreements to H1B visas. You name the workplace topic and we tried to cover it. It’s still available for download. This fall, I picked up the mantle as host (with big shoes to fill) and I’m pleased to announce the first new episode of Season 2 is now live on whe ..read more

As I continue to highlight some important employment law developments from this summer, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) caused a mild stir for employment law lawyers when it issued a decision in Stericycle, Inc. This ruling introduces a fresh legal standard for assessing employers’ workplace policies and rules, with far-reaching implications for businesses — and not just those with unions. Employers of all types need to be vigilant and consider a review of their policies and employee handbooks to ensure compliance. Previous Standard During the Trump administration, the NLRB employe ..read more

The legislative session wrapped up last week and if you were on the lookout for lots of new employment law-related measures, you were likely to have been disappointed. Despite serious changes to the state’s non-compete laws being discussed as well as expansion of the state’s paid leave laws having passed a committee, only a handful of measures have made it to the Governor’s desk. My colleague Keegan Drenosky and I will provide a full recap of the bills in an upcoming post but if you can’t wait that long, we’ll be doing a presentation before the Fairfield County Bar Association tomorrow, June ..read more

Last week, the NLRB issued a landmark decision in McLaren Macomb that is already shaking up how private employers (both unionized and non-unionized) should consider severance agreements. My colleagues have the full recap of the decision over at our sister blog, Employment Law Letter, from Friday and I highly recommend reading that first. The key takeaway from the decision is that the Board held that severance agreements containing broad non-disparagement and confidentiality provisions violate the NLRA because they interfere with employees’ Section 7 rights (which provide that employees may en ..read more

Back in May, I talked about “The New Digital Campaign for Your Company’s Workers” which challenged readers to gauge their familiarity with TikTok trends and which tried to highlight how unions are using newer social media platforms for their campaigns. Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with the ProjectHR podcast about this very topic.   We talked about why companies should take digital communication seriously, how digital organizing is different and what makes digital campaigns more effective. ProjectHR is one of those gems out there.  Each week, they do a deep dive into ..read more

It would be easy to say that the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday has nothing to do with the workplace and therefore presents no employment law issues. But such an approach would not only be foolish, it would be wrong. The full impact of the decision will be felt for an entire generation while a full analysis of the decision’s impact will take some more time too.  But it’s apparent from the first few reads of the Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is that it presents a real challenge for employers and is so disruptive in so many ways both for employers and ..read more

If I said the words, “My money don’t jiggle jiggle, it folds”, what’s your first reaction? If you said, I have no idea what you’re talking about, then this post is for you. But the rest of you know what I’m talking about and are probably humming it right now — it’s part of a viral TikTok video that has over 40 million views to it with countless more views with people dancing to it.  Words can’t do it justice, but basically, according to Mashable, it is “an auto tuned clip of British-American journalist Louis Theroux on Chicken Shop Date with Amelia Dimoldenberg, a YouTube series where Di ..read more

With union organizing efforts making headlines at Amazon and Starbucks, a new bill in Connecticut is designed to make it even easier for unions to win organizing votes. A bill banning so-called “captive audience” meetings won final approval from the Connecticut General Assembly late Friday; it moves to the Governor’s office where his approval seems assured in this election year. Versions of this bill have been floated for years and prior versions were deemed too legally flawed to proceed. But still, legislators have moved ahead with this measure passing a bill that will likely be subject ..read more

The “short” session of the Connecticut General Assembly is wrapping up early next month so it’s a good opportunity to take a peek at the items that are still in contention for passage this term.  Many of the bills that are still being considered relate to the “labor” side of Labor & Employment Law.  Here are a few highlights: Senate Bill 317 passed the Senate on April 13th and would provide striking workers with unemployment benefits — a big change from existing practice.  The CBIA has opposed this measure since employers are the sole revenue source for the unemployment tr ..read more

Well, it’s over. Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States effective January 20, 2021. For employers, the last several years have been filled with several retreats from existing policies.   And over the last year in particular, the Trump administration was busy rolling out new regulations for employers to follow.  It’s not quite as predicted four years ago at this same time but not that far off either. What’s interesting, however, is that those regulations may not be rolled back so quickly under a Biden administration.  Obviously, the proposed ones can be st ..read more