The U.S. Senate is expected to consider President Barack Obama’s five nominations to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after its Memorial Day recess. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted on May 22 to approve the nominees, moving the confirmation process to the full Senate.

The nominees up for Senate confirmation are Republicans Harry I. Johnson, III, and Philip A. Miscimarra and Democrats Sharon Block, Richard Griffin, and current NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce, whose term will end August 27 unless confirmed again by the Senate. Block and Griffin have had seats on the Board since January 2012, when Obama made recess appointments to fill vacant seats.

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Nearly four months after an appeals court ruled that recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) made in 2012 were invalid, another appellate court has ruled a previous recess appointment unconstitutional.

The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled May 16 in NLRB v. New Vista Nursing & Rehab. that President Barack Obama’s 2010 recess appointment of Craig Becker to the NLRB was invalid. Becker, a Democrat, served on the Board from April 5, 2010, through January 3, 2012.

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by Michael G. McNally

The Minnesota Marriage Equality Bill, HF 1054, was signed into law by Governor Mark Dayton on May 14, 2013. Effective August 1, 2013, Minnesota will allow individuals of the same sex to marry.

Employers need to review their policies relating to employee health and retirement benefits to reflect this change. What changes are allowed or required will differ based on whether the benefit is governed by state or federal law.

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Although noncompetition agreements remain unenforceable under state law, a new law confirms that Oklahoma employers may enforce agreements prohibiting former employees from soliciting a company’s employees to leave their jobs to work for another employer.

For some time, Oklahoma employers have been able to contractually prohibit former employees from soliciting workers for a reasonable period of time, but Senate Bill 1031 confirms and reinforces such prohibitions by codifying that a nonsolicitation provision is not an unlawful restraint of trade. Under the law, employers may have contracts that prohibit employees or independent contractors from directly or indirectly soliciting employees or contractors to become employees for another organization.

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by Sophie E. Zdatny

House Bill 99, titled “an act relating to equal pay,” has cleared both chambers of the Vermont Legislature and is set to be signed into law by Governor Peter Shumlin on Tuesday, May 14.

The final bill amends Vermont’s Fair Employment Practices Act to provide that an employer may pay different wage rates to employees of different sexes only when the differential wages are based on (1) a seniority system, (2) a merit system, (3) a system in which earnings are based on quality or quantity of production, or (4) a bona fide factor other than sex. Employers now will be required to show that any wage differential is based on a factor that “does not perpetuate a sex-based differential in compensation, is job-related with respect to the position in question, and is based upon a legitimate business consideration.”

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by Mike Maslanka

On May 2, Governor Rick Perry signed the newly enacted Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act, which takes effect September 1. Texas is the 48th state to pass the law, proving that while Texas may not always be first, it is never last!

The law, put simply, is a big deal. It wipes away, with a stroke of the governor’s signature, all existing case law regarding misappropriation of trade secrets. So what will be a trade secret under the new law? “Information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, process, financial data, or list of potential customers or suppliers.”

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Probusiness groups are cheering a new ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that represents another blow to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The appeals court, which issued another ruling against the NLRB in January, ruled on May 7 that the Board exceeded its authority in its effort to require employers to post a notice of employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

The NLRB issued the rule in 2011, but it was never implemented because of court challenges. Had it gone into effect, all employers under NLRB jurisdiction—including nonunion employers—would have been required to post an 11-by-17-inch poster explaining that employees have the right to act together to improve wages and working conditions; to form, join, and assist a union; to bargain collectively with their employer; and to refrain from any of those activities.

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The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), crippled by a January court ruling against two recess appointees, has the potential to get back to full strength if the Senate confirms nominations President Barack Obama made April 9. Previous attempts to fill the NLRB have failed over congressional opposition to Board actions and Obama’s nominees.

On April 9, Obama nominated Republicans Harry I. Johnson, III, and Philip A. Miscimarra along with Democrat Mark Gaston Pearce. Pearce is the current NLRB chair. His term is set to expire August 27. Johnson and Miscimarra are both management-side employment attorneys.

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by Calvin L. Keith

Portland, Oregon, has become just the fourth U.S. city to require that employers provide sick leave. The new ordinance goes into effect January 1, 2014. Here is a brief summary.

Who is covered?

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by Elaine Young

Employers wanting to hire foreign workers through the H-1B visa program need to be ready to file petitions with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on April 1. U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialized fields. The first possible start date for most H-1B employees is the first day of the federal fiscal year, October 1. Therefore, petitions submitted on April 1, 2013, will apply to the 2014 federal fiscal year, which begins October 1, 2013.

Here’s an overview of what to consider before April 1 and some information about how the H-1B process may change in the future.

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