Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives

The NLRB's "quickie election" rules will go into effect today, April 30, in light of a federal district court decision denying a Motion seeking an injunction against the rule becoming effective. The Court indicated that it would issue a written opinion before the date on which any election could be held under the new rules. Our calculation is that, at least for now, the minimum time necessary for an election to be held after the filing of a petition is 17 days.

The  Court's Order reads:  “As the parties discussed in a conference call with the Court at 5:00 p.m. on April 27, the Court ORDERS that ...

In Victoria, Texas, the Citizens Medical Center prohibits hiring obese employees.  The hospital promulgated a policy that requires all potential employees to have a body mass index (BMI) of less than 35.  For example, an applicant who is 5-foot-5 could not weigh more than 210 pounds, and an applicant who is 5-foot-10 could not weigh more than 245 pounds.  All potential employees are screened by a physician to assess their fitness for duty.  According to the hospital’s policy, an employee’s physical appearance “should fit with a representational image or specific mental projection of the job of a health care professional.”

A federal court jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of Tyson Foods today in a Rule 23 class and FLSA collective action, alleging failure to pay overtime under state and federal law.  Tyson was represented at trial by Hunton & Williams' lawyers Michael J. Mueller, Emily Burkhardt Vicente and Evangeline Paschal and local Baird Holm lawyer, Thomas E. Johnson.

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit significantly limited the time period in which employers may be cited for recordkeeping violations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (“the Act”) in AKM LLC dba Volks Constructors v. Secretary of Labor, Civ. No. 11-1106.  The Court ruled that such violations must be cited within six months of their occurrence, marking a considerable decrease from the previous practice of citing violations from up to five years prior--the period of time during which injury and illness logs must be retained under the Act.  In doing so, the federal appeals court rejected the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission’s decision upholding an enforcement action against Volks Constructors and the Occupational Safety and Health Agency’s (“OSHA”) argument that Volks’s failure to keep injury and illness logs constituted continuing violations.

Brinker International, one of the world's leading casual dining restaurant companies, announced yesterday that the California Supreme Court has issued an opinion in Brinker Restaurant Corp. et al. v. The Superior Court for the State of California for the County of San Diego (Hohnbaum). This long-awaited decision, on which Hunton & Williams attorneys M. Brett Burns, Laura M. Franze, and Susan J. Sandidge served as counsel of record for Brinker, resolves multiple first-impression issues regarding California meal period and rest break class actions. Among other things, the Court ...

On March 12, 2012, OSHA issued a memorandum expanding on specific policies and practices that OSHA asserts can discourage employees from reporting workplace injuries or illnesses, and thus, violate the Occupational Safety and Health Act (“OSH Act” or “Act”) and/or the Federal Railroad Safety Act (“FRSA”).  Intended as guidance to both field compliance officers and whistleblower investigative staff, the memorandum notes four programs or practices that, while potentially useful to management as a metric for safety performance, cannot be condoned without careful scrutiny because of the risk they could chill employee reporting of workplace injuries or illnesses.