Laws & HR
Today is President’s Day, so I present VOL.3 – laws every HR person should know!
National Labor Relations Act:
President at the time: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Year: 1935
The situation: The US was struggling during The Great Depression and dealing with:
- Unemployment over 20%
- Poor wages
- Unsafe working conditions
- Employers cracking down on unions
Massive labor strikes were taking place and some situations were becoming violent and unmanageable.
Enter the NLRA Act of 1935.
This act was a part of FDR’s New Deal legislation.
The impact: The act contained fair labor practices and it:
- Strengthened worker’s rights by giving them the legal right to form unions, participate in collective bargaining, and strike!
- Created a formal process for resolving labor disputes
- Created the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which is a federal agency that can investigate labor practices and prosecute violations to labor laws.
📣 The NLRA could be considered the foundation of labor protections. Future laws like the Fair Labor & Standards Act (FLSA) build upon the NLRA in terms of strengthening worker’s rights.
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act:
President at the time: Ronald Regan
Fun fact: Regan actually refused to sign the bill however a Democratic controlled congress with Republican support achieved the 66% super majority to get the bill passed.
It became a law without Regan’s signature.
Year: 1988 became a law / took effect in 1989
The situation: In the 80s, the US economy was experiencing some shifts due to things like globalization, corporate restructuring and deindustrialization. The impact was widespread layoffs in industries like manufacturing, corporate downsizing after mergers, and unfortunately many factories closing.
Americans were often blindsided by these layoffs and sudden loss of employment.
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Enter the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act otherwise known as the WARN act.
The impact: Companies > 100 full time employees became required to give a 60 day notice before mass layoffs to the appropriate local government / state government.
The WARN act does have exemptions like:
- Faltering company exemption: when a company is pursuing additional capital that can help the layoff be avoided and the notice could hurt those efforts. Applies to plants.
- Unforeseeable Business Circumstances Exception: When the layoff is caused by unexpected business circumstances that wasn’t foreseeable at the time the 60 day notice was required. Think things like losing a major client, unanticipated regulation or sudden economic changes.
- Natural disaster: When a layoff or closing down is directly caused by a natural disaster like hurricane, tornado, wildfire, earthquake or flooding.
- Temporary Facility Closure or Project Completion: If a facility was intended to be temporary and had a known end date.
While the WARN act is a federal law, some states have enacted state laws around advance notice to employees losing their jobs.
Each state might have different stipulations so it is helpful to check out what is required!
BTW: Some states maintain their own website to track WARN notices.
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act:
President at the time: Barack Obama
Year: 2009
The situation: In the early 2000s, women made up about half of the US workforce however women still experienced disparities in both pay and workplace treatment.
At that time women earned on average 76 cents for every dollar earned by men. And there were even bigger gaps for women of color.
Enter Lilly Ledbetter. She discovered, nearly 2 decades later, that she was being paid less than her male counterparts for doing the exact same work. UGH.
In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that she had missed the 180-day window to file a claim.
The impact: The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 expanded and strengthened the Equal Pay Act of 1963 by:
- Resetting the clock with each paycheck – meaning workers can claim pay discrimination even if it’s been going on for years. The Equal Pay Act only gave 180 days from the FIRST unequal paycheck.
- Closed the loophole that was allowing companies to get away with long term pay discrimination.
- Made it easier for employees to file claims – thereby making the Equal Pay Act’s goal of eliminating wage discrimination closer to reality.
- Increased legal accountability for employers.
- Encouraging greater pay transparency.
The state of pay transparency is incredibly relevant and important. Currently 14 states have enacted pay transparency laws with a few cities also passing requirements.
