The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (IL, IN, WI) has upheld a National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) decision that a grocery chain using nonunion construction contractors unlawfully ejected building trade council representatives handing out handbills adjacent to properties leased by the chain.   

An increase in I-9 audits over the past few years has spurred the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to issue guidance for employers that are the subject of an I-9 audit.  DOJ’s guidance shares best practices and steps employers should take to avoid charges of discrimination when faced with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) I-9 audit.

The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (“CDW”) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (“Chamber”) have jointly filed a motion to intervene in a case challenging Pres. Obama’s latest appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”).  AGC is a member of both organizations.

A contractor must comply with an arbitration award assigning work to members of the Plasterers union rather than the Carpenters despite the fact that the contractor’s employees have elected the Carpenters as their exclusive collective bargaining representative, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has held.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency responsible for enforcing the federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee, has recently issued two guidance documents for employers, one on employer requirements that applicants have a high school diploma and the other on the employment of veterans with disabilities.  The guidance addresses the effect that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has on each hiring issue.

With several agencies sharing the task of issuing regulations and guidance regarding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), many questions are finally being answered about how the requirements of the 2010 law will actually be administered.

The U. S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) recently released an updated version of its elaws Advisor regarding the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a federal law that entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified reasons.   The FMLA elaws Advisor was revised to reflect recent statutory changes to the FMLA and corresponding regulatory changes that became effective in January  2009.

On Feb. 21, 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and Employment and Training Administration issued a final rule implementing stricter guidelines regarding the H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker program, a program that allows foreign workers to enter the U.S. on a temporary basis when qualified U.S. workers are not available and when employment of those workers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers.  The rule will affect H-2B applications filed on or after April 23, 2012.

On March 2, 2012, a federal court in Washington, D.C., upheld most of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) notice posting rule. The posting rule is described here, here, and here.

AGC is seeking presentations for two of AGC’s most sought-after annual conferences, the HR Professionals Conference and the Training, Education and Development (TED) Conference.  For 2012, the conferences will be co-located in San Antonio, TX, Oct. 15-17, with separate tracks for each conference. A federal construction HR workshop will be held Oct. 17-18 in conjunction with the HR Professionals Conference.