Employment Law Watch : Employment & Labor Lawyer & Attorney : Reed Smith Law Firm

This post was written by Bill Bevan, John DiNome and Joel Barras.

This past weekend, with the Easter Congressional recess just under way, President Barack Obama wasted no time in announcing the recess appointments of his two proposed Democratic nominees to serve as members on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). One appointment was Buffalo union-side attorney Mark Pearce; the other was the highly controversial Craig Becker from Washington, D.C., who is counsel to the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union. President Obama decided not to install his Republican nominee, Brian Hayes, as a recess appointment to the NLRB. As a result of these recess appointments, Democrats now occupy three of the four filled seats on the NLRB, with Mr. Hayes awaiting Senate confirmation to occupy the remaining seat. Mr. Becker’s and Mr. Pearce’s appointments will last until the end of the next Congressional session, which coincides with the end of 2011. Notably, the terms of Republican Board Member Peter Schaumber and Republican NLRB General Counsel Ronald Meisburg expire in August 2010. The president, of course, could simply take his time filling Mr. Schaumber’s seat, leaving the Board at three Democratic Members, and let the general counsel’s side of the Agency be run by a career acting general counsel until his administration sees what the makeup of Congress looks like after the 2010 elections. Given Mr. Becker’s published works, which are explicitly pro-union, and his stated belief that the Act can be structurally reformed by Board decision-making and rule-making, it is expected that employers’ rights, particularly during union organizing campaigns, will be greatly diminished through future NLRB decisions. Indeed, Mr. Becker’s stated views in the past are that employers should essentially have no involvement in union organizing elections. As always, we will continue to monitor the NLRB docket and decisions to update you on any legal developments.

Also included in the president's announcement were two appointments to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Georgetown Law Professor Chai Feldblum and the former Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment Standards under President George W. Bush, Victoria Lipnic.

To learn more about the appointments, please read the White House's press release.

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This week, President Obama signed into law a $17.6 billion jobs creation package passed by Congress, H.R. 2847, the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (“HIRE Act”). This legislation includes tax incentives for businesses to hire and retain the unemployed; extension of infrastructure programs affecting surface transportation, energy, and school construction projects; and continuation of depreciation programs in effect for small businesses.

For more information about the HIRE Act, please read our client alert written by Christopher L. Rissetto, James A. Burns, Jr. and Robert Helland.

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In Bateman and others v Asda Stores Ltd, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) upheld an Employment Tribunal’s decision that Asda was entitled to introduce new pay terms without its employees’ consent because it could rely on a statement in its staff handbook reserving a right to make unilateral variations to the terms of its employees’ contracts of employment.

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Tucked away in Act 44 of 2009, landmark legislation intended to relieve the significant financial strain on municipalities throughout Pennsylvania, in particular Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the General Assembly imposed a set of best-practices standards on every municipal pension plan in the Commonwealth. Act 44 contains sweeping changes for the use of professionals by municipal pension systems by imposing substantial selection procedures and disclosure requirements.  Chapter 7-A of Act 44 mandates an open competitive selection process for any and all professional services contracts when the municipal pension system is a party. Basically, any entity receiving money from a municipal pension fund, such as actuaries, fund custodians, fund managers, plan advisors and other professional consultants, going forward, may be retained only after being selected through a competitive process. Furthermore, under Act 44, the “most qualified” bidder must be selected. Finally, Act 44 contains conflict-of-interest standards, restrictions on political contributions, and annual disclosure requirements.

This article explains the mandates of the new Act and provides a checklist of tasks necessary for compliance by a municipality.

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