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Gentry arbitration commentary
August 30, 2007 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo

Lots of commentary on Gentry v. Superior Court (Circuit City):

Gentry - New attack on class action waivers.

Gentry - Opt-out clause is not a safe harbor for unconscionability.

Gentry: Class Action Arbitration Bans Not Always Enforceable in Wage Cases.

Gentry Court: Mostly No class-action waivers in employment contracts.

Gentry v. Superior Court (Circuit City) Opinion.

LawMemo publishes Employment Law Memo.

Congrats to Workplace Prof Blog
August 27, 2007 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo

Rick Bales	Paul Secunda

Workplace Prof Blog is the Number One Most Popular Law Blog Among Academics, according to Justia.

Hey, not merely the #1 employment law blog. The #1 of all blogs.

Hearty congratulations to Richard Bales, Professor of Law at Salmon P. Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University and to Paul M. Secunda, Assistant Professor of Law at University of Mississippi School of Law.

LawMemo publishes Employment Law Memo.

ABA CLE on labor & employment law
August 27, 2007 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo

• What: Annual CLE Conference, by the ABA Section of Labor & Employment Law.
• When: November 7–10, 2007.
• Where: Philadelphia.
• Details:
  Save $100 by registering by September 14.
  All the details are [here].

The conference looks good.
Pretty inexpensive CLE credits, too.

LawMemo publishes Employment Law Memo.

Minority bargaining required?
August 17, 2007 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo

Some unions have asked the NLRB to require employers to bargain with unions that represent less than half of the employees in a bargaining unit.

The unions request that the NLRB engage in a rulemaking process to adopt the following proposed rule:

Pursuant to Sections 7, 8(a)(1), and 8(a)(5) of the Act, in workplaces where employees are not currently represented by a certified or recognized Section 9(a) majority/exclusive collective-bargaining representative in an appropriate bargaining unit, the employer, upon request, has a duty to bargain collectively with a labor organization that represents less than an employee-majority with regard to the employees who are its members, but not for any other employees.

Text of Petition - Rulemaking regarding Members-Only Minority-Union Collective Bargaining.

Text of Letter - Labor Law Professors Endorsing Members-Only
Non-Majority Collective Bargaining Under The NLRA

Thanks to EFCA Updates (by Kilpatrick Stockton LLP) for making these documents available.

LawMemo publishes Employment Law Memo.

No-Match Letters - new regulation
August 15, 2007 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo

Lots of excitement about the new reg dealing with Social Security no-match letters. The buzz is that the government is really cracking down on employers who hire illegals. And doing this by making employers fire workers whose social security numbers don't check out.

Ho hum.

There is no requirement to fire non-matching workers.

I see it all as merely a clarification. It spells out what steps an employer should take when the government notifies the employer that the SSN does not match. And if the employer takes those steps, it's pretty hard for the government to later argue that the employer had knowledge (constructive or actual) that an illegal was on the payroll.

I think George Orwell would have liked the title of the new regulation: Safe Harbor Procedures for Employers Who Receive a No-Match Letter.

Text of the rule (which goes into effect September 14, 2007).
Fact Sheet.

LawMemo publishes Employment Law Memo.

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