George Miller is a member of the Firm's Labor & Employment Service Team. He concentrates his practice in the areas of labor and employment law and eminent domain law.
Professional Experience
- Adjunct Professor, University of ...
On July 12th I posted a report on this blog about the U.S. Department of Labor’s “persuader rule” that was set to go into effect on July 1st. This rule would have required employers and their labor consultants—including employers’ attorneys—to file reports with the DOL disclosing in a public record the work the ...
By now, I assume most employers and others who keep up with developments in labor and employment law are familiar with the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) controversial “persuader rule” that was set to take effect on July 1 of this year. For those who are not familiar with it, here is a summary of what all the fuss is about ...
It has been one year since the National Labor Relations Board’s so-called “ambush” or “quickie” election rule went into effect. According to the Board, the rule was “designed to remove unnecessary barriers to the fair and expeditious resolution of representation cases” and “streamline” the process. In ...
On March 17th, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued another decision unfavorable to McDonald’s USA and certain McDonald’s franchisees. This was the Board’s fifth decision in this massive case, in which the unions and the Board’s General Counsel are trying to prove that McDonald’s and its franchisees are ...
On March 30th, a group of plaintiffs consisting of several industry associations of employers and an Arkansas law firm filed an action in the U.S. District Court in Little Rock seeking an injunction to prevent the U.S. Department of Labor from implementing its new “persuader activity” rule. This rule, which is set to take ...
In the past two weeks there have been some important developments in the ongoing case against Browning-Ferris Industries of California (“BFI”). Recall that in August 2015, the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision in a union election case filed by Teamsters Local 350 against BFI and its labor contractor, Lead ...
Earlier this month, the National Labor Relations Board issued two decisions rejecting procedural motions filed by McDonald’s, USA in the pending unfair labor practice cases filed against it and certain McDonald’s franchisees. As background, in December 2014 the NLRB’s General Counsel issued 13 complaints involving ...
When the National Labor Relations Board implemented its new union election rule in April of this year, the prediction was that the new procedure would shorten the time between the date of the filing of the election petition and the date of the election, something which labor unions and their supporters favored but which the ...
In recent years, perhaps due to the steep decline in union organizing activity that traditionally created much of the work at the National Labor Relations Board, the Board, or more precisely the General Counsel of the Board, has been focusing attention on non-union employers’ policies that could violate the National Labor ...
By George J. Miller
Today, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Harris v Quinn, 573 U.S. ___ (2014) that it is a violation of the First Amendment for a group of home health care providers (personal assistants or PAs) working in the State of Illinois’ Medicaid program to be required to pay an “agency fee” to a union (the Service ...
By George J. Miller
On November 7, 2013, OSHA issued a proposed regulation that would significantly amend the regulation regarding the annual OSHA injury and illness survey.
The most significant aspect of the proposed change is a provision stating that OSHA intends to make the data it collects public, subject to restrictions imposed by the Freedom ...
On September 28, 2012, the National Labor Relations Board issued its first decision in one of the social media cases which have garnered so much attention in the last year and a half. The case is Karl Knauz Motors, Inc., d/b/a Knauz BMW, 358 NLRB No. 164. This was the case of a BMW salesman named Becker who was fired after ...
By George J. Miller
One of the most common parts of employers' employee handbooks is a page which the employee signs acknowledging receipt of the handbook. These pages often contain statements to the effect that the employee acknowledges or agrees that the handbook is not a contract of employment and that the employment relationship is "at-will ...
By George J. Miller
In a case that glaringly showed how unions are willing to advance their political agenda at the expense (literally!) of the employees they represent, today the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the employees. The case is Knox v. Service Employees International Union, Local 1000. The Court held that the First Amendment prohibits a ...
By George J. Miller
In the past year the National Labor Relations Board's Acting General Counsel, Lafe Solomon, has attracted a lot of attention in the legal and business community by issuing three memoranda describing how his office has alleged that employers have violated the rights of non-union employees by enforcing social ...
By George J. Miller
On May 22, 2012, in long standing case involving Park Point University in Pittsburgh, a three member majority of the National Labor Relations Board issued an invitation for briefs from interested parties on the question of whether private university faculty members seeking to be represented by a union are employees ...
By George J. Miller
On March 8, 2012, Lafe E. Solomon, Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, issued a Summary of Operations for fiscal year 2011 (October 1, 2010 -- September 30, 2011), containing preliminary figures for the fiscal year. This data reveals a continuing slowdown in labor union activity across the country ...
By George J. Miller
In the recent case of Hergenreder v. Bickford Senior Living Group, No. 10-1474, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that an employee could not be compelled to arbitrate an ADA claim against her employer when, under Michigan contract law, she had not contractually agreed to do so. The company's position was that she ...
By George J. Miller
When the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor or a state department of labor determines that an employer has misclassified employees as independent contractors and has failed to pay them minimum wage or overtime pay required by law, the remedy at the administrative level typically has been for the employer ...
By George J. Miller
Labor law involves balancing many interests of employers, employees, and labor unions. The National Labor Relations Board is the federal agency created by Congress in 1935 to balance these interests in the first instance, subject to review by the federal courts of appeals. Students of labor law know that the NLRB has ...
By George J. Miller
On June 20, 2011, in addressing what Justice Antonin Scaliacalled, "one of the most expansive class actions ever," the U.S. Supreme Court issued its much anticipated decision in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes. The Court held that the lower federal courts had improperly certified the case--filed by just three current ...
By George J. Miller
In further response to the decision of the Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board to issue a complaint against the Boeing Company over its decision to assemble a certain number of 787 aircraft at a non-union facility in South Carolina and not to assemble them at unionized facility in Washington because of ...
By George J. Miller
On February 16, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (which hears appeals from federal district courts in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee) held that former employees who sue for violations of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) do not have a right to a jury trial. In this ...
By George Miller
By George Miller
Wyatt attorneys Byron E. Leet, Lisa C. DeJaco, and Sara C. Veeneman recently obtained a final decision from the Kentucky Supreme Court on behalf of the Jefferson County Board of Education that is important for all school boards in Kentucky. In Sajko v. Jefferson County Board of Education, et al, the court held that a teacher ...
By George J. Miller
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is the independent federal agency established by Congress to safeguard employees' rights to organize and to determine whether to have unions as their bargaining agents under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). A recent case reminds us, however, that the NLRA protects ...
By George J. Miller
On June 22, 2010, the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor issued a written interpretation of the Family and Medical Leave Act concerning whether employees who do not have a biological or legal relationship with a child may nevertheless take FMLA leave for the birth, adoption, or serious health condition of a ...
By George J. Miller
On May 19, 2010, the U.S. Department of Labor published in the Federal Register (75 FR 28368) a final regulation implementing President Obama’s Executive Order 13496, which he issued in January 2009. The regulation goes into effect on June 19, 2010.
EO13496 requires federal contractors to include clauses in their ...
By George J. Miller
The table below shows results from elections supervised by the National Labor Relations Board in 2009 in four states where the Wyatt firm has offices. Compared to national statistics for certification elections (see earlier post on this blog), employers in Kentucky fared much better than average, while employers in Indiana ...
By George Miller
On January 20, 2010, the White House issued a press release announcing Presidential nominations being sent to the Senate. Among them was Craig Becker for a seat on the National Labor Relations Board. As reported in earlier pieces on this blog by Ed Hopson (see below), the President first nominated Mr. Becker last year; but ...
By George J. Miller
As if the flood of information and guidance from OSHA and the CDC were not enough to help employers and employees deal with the threat of H1N1 in the workplace, Congress has now gotten into the act. On November 3rd, the Emergency Influenza Containment Act (H.R. 3991) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. This ...
By George J. Miller
To help our readers follow union election activity in our practice area, we will occasionally post election statistics and other information, such as locations of activity and the companies and unions involved. For starters, here is the big picture, using nationwide statistics from election reports of the National Labor ...
By George J. Miller
It is common practice for employers to “get it in writing” when conducting workplace investigations. However, when it comes to employees complaining about wage and hour violations, a new court decision cautions against this practice. In a case involving a Saint Gobain Performance Plastics plant in Wisconsin, a federal ...
by George Miller
On September 23, 2009, the House Labor Committee opened hearings on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009 (H.R. 3017), otherwise referred to as ENDA. ENDA is sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank (D – MA) and has been introduced in previous sessions of Congress. ENDA would prohibit employment discrimination, preferential ...
By George Miller
On January 29, 2009, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (“Act”), which addresses the issue of discrimination in compensation. The Act amends Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the federal Rehabilitation Act, to state that, “. . . a ...
By George J. Miller
On June 29, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its eagerly anticipated decision in the case of Ricci v. DeStefano. This case involved the issue of racial bias in connection with the use of test results for purposes of promotion to the ranks of lieutenant and captain in the New Haven, Connecticut fire department. In 2003, the city ...
By Ed Hopson and George Miller
On July 9, 2009, the White House announced that it was sending the U.S. Senate the nominations of Craig Becker, Mark Gaston Pearce, and Brian Hayes to be members of the National Labor Relations Board. If the Senate confirms these nominees, the NLRB will have a full complement of five members for the first time since ...