As most employers are now aware, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB, or the “Board”) in recent years has adopted more restrictive, non-employer-friendly approaches to what it will permit in workplace policies. These rules have been applied to union employers and just as vigorously to unorganized employers. Management labor lawyers have been placing their clients on guard to prevent them from running afoul of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Now that a new administration is in charge, employers are left wondering (and hoping) whether there will be a shift in this trend.
The answer would appear to be YES.
Cellco Partnership d/b/s Verizon Wireless Inc., is a recent example of the NLRB’s heavy-handed approach in reviewing employers’ policies in employee handbooks. The Board’s current standard deems a handbook provision unlawful if employees “would reasonably construe” the policies as prohibiting concerted activity protected under Section 7 of the NLRA, and the Board uses no common sense in applying this standard. Consistent with this approach, the NLRB ruled, over a well-reasoned dissent, in Verizon Wireless Inc. that the employer-maintained handbook rules at issue unduly restricted employee communications and behavior and hence were unlawful. Continue Reading
A recent decision by the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division for the First Department, Buchanan Capital Markets, LLC v. DeLucca, 144 A.D.3d 508 (1st Dep’t. 2016), suggests that noncompetition restrictions against employees who have been terminated without cause are unenforceable. The court stated that “covenants not to compete in employment agreements … are not enforceable if the employer … does not demonstrate continued willingness to employ the party covenanting not to compete.”
In August 2015, the NLRB rewrote the book on joint employment, declaring in the Browning-Ferris case that the right to exercise minimal control, even if not actually exercised, was enough to create a joint employment relationship. (Read more 
Probationary periods are a tool long used to test the viability of job candidates. They can provide a window into an employee’s suitability and qualifications for a position. In an economy that continues to have high unemployment, recent graduates, those looking to change careers and those interested in a specific company may be particularly open to a probationary period that lets them get their foot in the door. However, without adequate protections, when completed, a probationary period may create an expectation on behalf of the new employee – and, more importantly, in the eyes of a court – that the employee cannot be fired at will. This is just one of several reasons you might consider eliminating probationary periods as a hiring tool, unless your company has a unionized workforce.
Los Angeles has become the latest city to ban private employers from asking job applicants about their criminal histories before offering a job. With its 
President-elect Donald J. Trump on Thursday named Andrew F. Puzder, chief executive of the company that operates the fast food outlets Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. to be the DOL’s new secretary of labor.
Public approval for medical and recreational marijuana is at an all-time high. In November 2016, four states voted to legalize recreational marijuana: California, Nevada, Massachusetts and Maine (although, at the time of this posting, the vote in Maine is subject to a recount). These states join Alaska, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Oregon and Washington, which previously legalized recreational use. When these changes take effect, it is estimated that one in five Americans will have access to entirely legal marijuana.
On Nov. 21, 2016, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued updated enforcement 
