Sam Hananel Posts

Workplaces cannot retaliate against employees after they testify about official corruption, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Unbelievable that this wasn't already on the books.

The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider a challenge from Alabama Democrats who say a Republican-drawn legislative map intentionally packs black Democrats into a few voting districts, giving them too little influence in the Legislature. The justices agreed to hear a pair of appeals from the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus and other Democratic lawmakers who contend the new map created in 2012 illegally limits black voting strength and makes it harder to elect Democrats outside the majority-black districts.

When Edward Lane testified about corruption at a community college program he headed in Alabama, he was fired. The Supreme Court on Monday considered whether the First Amendment protects Lane and millions of other public employees from job retaliation when they offer testimony about government misconduct in court. The high court has previously ruled that the constitutional right to free speech protects public workers only when they speak out as citizens, not when they act in their official roles.

The Supreme Court is considering whether to abandon a quarter-century of precedent and make it tougher for investors to band together to sue corporations for securities fraud. The Obama administration opposes the change.

In what is sure to anger Republicans seeking to curb the influence of labor, the National Labor Relations Board is proposing a streamlined process to make it easier for workers to organize. The new plan could cut time from petition to elections to under a month, scaring big business leaders who would prefer to indefinitely delay workers.

President Barack Obama's plan to raise the minimum wage for federally contracted workers is winning praise from unions and labor activists, but it could take a year or more before any hikes take place and the impact may not be as widespread as some advocates had hoped.

Union membership held steady in a new Bureau of Labor Statistics report, good news for demographic long in decline. Increases in the private sector were offset by troubling losses in government unions, though, as statehouses and the feds shed jobs in the name of deficit reduction.

A manufacturer's lobbying group is suing the federal government to change the rules that mandate posters on a job site that say it's okay to form unions. Can't imagine what the businesses would do if the workers weren't informed...

Employers that still offer workers traditional pension plans are in line for hefty insurance premium increases under the budget agreement struck in Congress, the second time in two years that lawmakers have turned to them to help finance spending deals. The basic annual government-charged premium for pension insurance already was scheduled to rise from $42 for each covered worker in the private sector to $49 in 2014. The new budget agreement would raise that premium to $57 in 2015 and again to $64 the following year.

Federal officials said Monday they are prepared to file formal complaints against Walmart for allegedly violating the legal rights of protesting workers last year. The National Labor Relations Board announced that its general counsel found merit in charges that the retailer unlawfully threatened employees in California and Texas with reprisal if they engaged in strikes and protests ahead of Black Friday, the big shopping day after Thanksgiving.

OSHA will require employers to submit workplace injury reports electronically, thereby improving efficiency in tracking where and how workers are injured on their job sites.

The recent spate of fast-food worker strikes is another sign of the need to raise the minimum wage for all workers, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Same-sex couples are treated less favorably than heterosexual couples when seeking information about rental housing advertised over the Internet, according to a first-of-its-kind national study from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

It seems like a simple proposition: give employees who work more than 40 hours a week the option of taking paid time off instead of overtime pay. The choice already exists in the public sector. Federal and state workers can save earned time off and use it weeks or even months later to attend a parent-teacher conference, care for an elderly parent or deal with home repairs.

Republicans in Congress are pushing legislation that would extend that option to the private sector. They say that would bring more flexibility to the workplace and help workers better balance family and career.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday nominated three candidates for full terms on the National Labor Relations Board, which has been in limbo since a federal appeals court invalidated his recess appointments to the agency. Obama urged the Senate to move swiftly in confirming the members — two Republicans and one Democrat — along with two other Democrats he nominated in February. That would fill all five seats on the board.

But it is not clear whether Republicans will go along with the package of nominees. The labor board has been a partisan lightning rod during Obama's presidency, with Republican lawmakers and business groups furious over decisions and rules they say are aimed at helping labor unions win more members.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said that Obama did not have the power to make three recess appointments last year to the National Labor Relations Board because the Senate was officially in session — and not in recess — at the time. If the decision stands, it could invalidate hundreds of board decisions.

One of the highest-ranking Hispanics in Obama's administration, Solis has won praise from labor unions for aggressive enforcement of wage and hour laws and job safety regulations. But business groups have criticized her as not taking a more cooperative approach.