Tag:

Labor Compliance

McLaren Macomb’s Changes to Severance Agreements Signals a Shift in Power for the NLRB

Lucas Bowerman Associate Editor Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2024 In McLaren Macomb, 372 NLRB No. 58, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) changed the validity and enforcement of confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses in severance agreements when it held that employers may no longer proffer language that infringes upon Section 7 National Labor …
Read more

Return of the Union: How Workers are Organizing and Corporations Are Trying to Stop Them

In the last few years, especially after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a noticeable growth in US labor organizing. Workers all over the country, from both large corporations and small companies, have gone on strikes and began forming labor unions in an effort to get better wages, working conditions, and benefits. Most recently, employees at large rail unions rejected a tentative deal to avert a walkout in September 2022 after it failed to adequately address their concerns. This is the latest, but certainly not the only, instance of workers demonstrating their increased bargaining power. We have also seen increased unionization movements by corporate employees at corporations like Amazon, Google, and Starbucks. However, as more corporate employees attempt to unionize, corporations have begun to push back, and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has stepped in to put a stop to blatant anti-unionization efforts.

Doing the Right Thing: Labor Force Compliance

Corporate compliance professionals will often define compliance as “doing the right thing.” Indeed, both compliance professionals and scholars agree that ethics are an important aspect of effective compliance programs. This is particularly true when it comes to compliance with forced labor regulations. Using forced labor can be appealing to companies seeking to reduce their operating costs and increase profits. However, in the face of a toxic business culture that values maximizing profits, compliance professionals must convince their colleagues that forced labor is not worth the savings in operating costs.