Labor & Employment

Here is the good news, more than ever manufacturers are looking at reshoring manufacturing jobs to the U.S.  A few years ago only 14% were looking at reshoring as a viable option.  That number has climbed to 21% of large manufacturers actually reshoring or preparing to do so, according to a recent article in the Financial Times.  As we recently informed you, executives are looking at onshoring due to rising wages in developing countries, shipping costs, more direct communications between design teams and manufacturing operations, and less money tied up in finished goods as they are transported to their markets.

The Surface Transportation Assistance Act (“STAA”) is a federal law that prohibits employers from discharging or discriminating against truck drivers for reporting safety violations. 29 U.S.C. § 31105. The STAA also protects an employee from termination for refusing to operate a motor vehicle that violates a safety regulation or because the employee has a reasonable apprehension of serious injury to him or herself or the public due to an unsafe condition with the vehicle. To obtain protection under the latter section, the employee must have requested that the employer fix the unsafe condition. 

The New Year is fast approaching and with it comes droves of college students seeking to trade their upcoming summer break for valuable on-the-job training.  This rite of passage has traditionally afforded prized experience and training for a student or recent grad, while allowing the employer to review the temperament and talents of the student to determine if she would be a cultural fit for possible future employment opportunities, and all-the-while, promoting the employer’s brand and reputation at the collegiate level.  However, a wave of wage-and-hour litigation brought by former unpaid interns has challenged to what extent for-profit employers will continue to have unpaid internships and how the surviving internship programs will be structured.

Yes, the NLRB did voluntarily dismiss its appeal in Chamber of Commerce v. NLRB, the case in which the District Court found that the Board’s expedited representation petition rules were invalid.  But do not get too excited, for as previously posted, the Board has already established that its primary agenda item for the upcoming year are these very rules. 

The long awaited decision by the Fifth Circuit regarding the NLRB’s D.R. Horton case issued this week in which the Court bypassed a number of jurisdictional issues and went straight to the heart of the matter.  In sum, the Court found that the Board’s finding that a class action waiver in conjunction with a mandatory arbitration provision regarding employment claims was not, per se, a violation of the National Labor Relations Act. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is launching a local emphasis program in Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri for programmed health inspections of industries known to use hazardous chemicals and who have reported release of such chemicals to the Environmental Protection Agency. Chemicals reported to the EPA that have been released into the environment include ammonia;…

There was a time when the decision to offshore manufacturing operations to an emerging market was an easy business decision.  However, the past decade has many companies questioning that business model.  Rising labor costs, uncertain supply chains, labor unrest and the costly and lengthy delivery time for manufactured goods coming from Asia has exponentially increased the cost to offshore manufacturing.