Employment Law and "Ban the Box"

The "Ban the Box" Campaign was started in 2004 by All of Us or None, a national civil rights group of formerly incarcerated people and their families.  The purpose of "Ban the Box" is to give formerly incarcerated individuals a fair chance in the hiring process.  "Ban the Box" allows employers to consider a job applicant's qualifications first, before viewing a candidate's criminal record.  The all too familiar conviction question is removed from the job application, and the candidate is not subjected to a criminal check until later in the hiring process.

Currently, there are a total of 16 states, as well as numerous cities and counties, that have adopted the "Ban the Box" policy.  Also, since 2012, the EEOC has endorsed the removal of the conviction question job applications as a best policy practice, making clear that federal civil rights laws regulate employment decisions based on arrests and convictions.

To read more about this campaign, click here.

If you have a question regarding your rights in the workplace, please contact Ambuter Law for your free case evaluation.

Unions, Immigrants, and Employment Law

The NLRB has signed an agreement with three countries - Mexico, Ecuador, and the Philippines - to teach immigrants how to unionize in the workplace.  This all started back in July 2013, when the NLRB and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed a national letter of Agreement in Washington D.C.  The letter references the National Labor Relations Act.  The NLRB says the Act "guarantees workers the right to join together, with or without a union, to improve their wages and working conditions, or to refrain from such activities.”

Also, according to a NLRB press release, the "NLRB and the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., as well as NLRB Regional Offices and Mexican Consulates nationwide, will cooperate to provide outreach, education, and training, and to develop best practices…"

About a month after the letter was signed with Mexico, additional agreements were signed with Ecuador and the Philippines.  The agreements state that the Number 1 goal is "to educate those who may not be aware of the Act, including those employees just entering the work force, by providing information designed to clearly inform [that nation’s] workers in the United States of America their rights under the Act and to develop ways of communicating such information (e.g., via print and electronic media, electronic assistance tools, mobile device applications, and links to the NLRB’s web site from the [country’s] web sites) to the … workers residing in the United States of America and their employers.”

Moreover, the NLRB has gone further by saying that the law's protections for unions protects illegal immigrants who may be members of unions.  What this means is that employers can be sanctioned for terminating illegal immigrants who may have engaged in union activism if the NLRB determines that the employee's activism was the real reason behind the termination.  This has caused more and more illegal immigrants to join unions, which in turn has caused some employers to be up in arms since it makes it much harder to terminate illegal immigrants.

What are your thoughts on this?  Ambuter Law wants to know.

If you have questions about your legal rights in the workplace, contact Ambuter Law for your free case evaluation.

Employment Law and Bullying in the Workplace

Workplace bullying is on the rise.  It isn't something new; it's just becoming more prevalent.  According to a recent study, 35 percent of workers said they felt bullied from work.  Last year, only 27 percent had felt this way.

     So who is doing the bullying?  According to the study, most who felt bullied pointed to incidents with their bosses (48 percent) or co-workers (45 percent).  Thirty-one percent felt bullied by customers, and 26 percent by someone higher up in the company other than their boss.  Also, fifty-four percent of those bullied said the bully was someone older than them, while twenty-nine percent said the person was younger.

     So what type of bullying are we seeing?  We're seeing employees falsely accused of mistakes, being ignored, having different standards or policies used towards them than other workers, being constantly criticized, being yelled at by their boss in front of co-workers, having belittling comments made about them about their work at meetings, being gossiped about, having their bosses assign their tasks to other workers, being excluded from projects or meetings, and being picked on for personal attributes.

     According to the study, many of those bullied confronted their bully or spoke with human resources about the incidents.  Unfortunately, for some of those bullied, the situation got worse or human resources did nothing.  But remember, unless you report the incident, there may be no chance that the bullying will ever stop, so reporting the incidents and and the bully is the best solution.

If you are the subject of discrimination or harassment in the workplace, contact Ambuter Law for a free confidential consultation.