Blog
- Appellate Division Holds that a Worker Who Quits His/her Job When Discharge is Imminent May Still be
Apr 9, 2018
By way of background, when an employee leaves his/her job voluntarily and for personal reasons, he/she is disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits. However, the Appellate Division in Cottman v. Bd. of Review, Dkt. No. A-1908-16T2, 2018 N.J. Super. LEXIS 52 (App. Div. March 29, 2018) clarified that rule of law, holding that “when an employee knows that he or she is about to be fired, the employee may quit without becoming ineligible.” In Cottman, a residential...Read More - Appellate Division Issues Two Opinions Addressing Tenure Charges
Apr 4, 2018
Newton v. State-Operated School District of the City of Newark, Dkt. No. A-4129-15T1 (App. Div. March 27, 2018) The Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, vacated an arbitration award which terminated a tenured teacher’s employment. The school district appealed, and the Appellate Division affirmed the Law Division’s decision. The tenure charges alleged that the teacher was inefficient, based upon evaluations from the 2012-13 school year through the beginning of the 2014-15 school year. Thus,...Read More - Beware the Broker: Fifth Circuit Vacates the DOL Fiduciary Rule
Mar 26, 2018
In April 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), under the Administration of President Obama, issued the “Fiduciary Rule”, which reinterpreted the term “investment advice fiduciary” under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). In U.S. Chamber of Commerce v. U.S. Dep’t of Labor, Dkt. No. 17-10238 (5th Cir. March 15, 2018), Plaintiffs, several business/industry groups, filed suit in the District Court of the Northern District of Texas, challenging the DOL rule. The Plaintiff made...Read More - Think Your Settlement in Another Court Won’t be Subjected to OPRA? Think Again.
Mar 21, 2018
Most public employers and employees in the State of New Jersey are familiar with OPRA, or the Open Public Records Act. It is the State law that governs the public’s access to government records. But what happens when a case involving a public entity is settled in a foreign – or non-New Jersey State – court? Does OPRA still govern access to the settlement? This is the issue recently addressed by the Superior Court of...Read More - Supreme Court Heard Oral Argument in Janus on February 26, 2018
Mar 2, 2018
As was previously discussed in a blog post, found HERE, United States Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, 851 F.3d 746 (7th Cir. 2017), which threatens to upend 40 years of history allowing public employee unions to require non-members to pay agency fees. Oral argument was heard by the Court on February 26, 2018. Zazzali Law will keep you updated about the case as it unfolds...Read More - NLRB Vacates its Decision in Hy-Brand, Reinstating Browning-Ferris
Mar 2, 2018
As was discussed in a previous blog post, which can be found HERE, on December 14th, the NLRB in Hy-Brand Industrial Contractors overturned its decision in Browning-Ferris Industries, 362 NLRB No. 186 (2015) (“Browning-Ferris”) in a 3-2 decision. Thereafter, on February 26, 2018, the NLRB vacated its decision in Hy-Brand, thereby reinstating Browning-Ferris. The Board's Agency Ethics Official determined that one of the members who voted in favor of overturning Browning-Ferris was disqualified from voting...Read More - Is Speech in the Workplace Protected, or is it Harassment?
Jan 25, 2018
On December 19, 2017, the Supreme Court of New Jersey, in State v. W.B., (A-6-16) (077623), redefined the limits of the State’s harassment statute, N.J.S.A. 2C:33-4(c), when it concluded that the statute was vague, broadly worded, and did not place a “reasonable person on sufficient notice” of the kinds of speech that it proscribed. More specifically, in W.B., Defendant W.B., a corrections officer, altered photographs of a fellow corrections office and his wife – with...Read More - Legal Developments Pertaining to Breastfeeding in the Workplace
Jan 22, 2018
On January 8, 2018, New Jersey P.L. 2017, c. 263 was signed into law. This law expands certain civil rights protections under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination to include breastfeeding and expressing milk or related medical conditions. This law has implications for women who need to breastfeed or express milk while in the workplace. Under the law, a woman cannot be fired or otherwise discriminated against by her employer because of breastfeeding or expressing...Read More - NLRB Under Trump Administration Overturns Browning-Ferris
Dec 21, 2017
As recently discussed in a previous blog post, two recent additions to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) - William Emanuel and Marvin Kaplan - joined Board Chairman Phil Miscimarra to form a Republican majority for the first time in a decade. The Board’s new configuration under the current administration jeopardizes recent labor-friendly Board decisions. This warning has, unfortunately, come true. On December 14th, the NLRB in Hy-Brand Industrial Contractors overturned its decision in Browning-Ferris...Read More - Labor-Friendly National Labor Relations Board Decisions at Risk Under New Board Configuration
Oct 20, 2017
Two recent additions to the National Labor Relations Board - William Emanuel and Marvin Kaplan - join Board Chairman Phil Miscimarra to form a Republican majority for the first time in a decade. The Board’s new configuration under the current administration, and the upcoming appointment of a new General Counsel, jeopardizes recent labor-friendly Board decisions. Those interested in the field of labor law should therefore be on the lookout for decisions reversing Obama-era precedent, particularly...Read More