Employment Law Newsletters

Accrual, Vesting, and Forfeiture of Pension Plans under ERISA

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) is a federal law that regulates certain employee benefits such as health plans and pension plans and specifies certain minimum standards for those plans. ERISA provides certain reporting and disclosure requirements and imposes fiduciary responsibility on the administrators of ERISA-governed plans.

Breastfeeding in the Workplace

It is now generally recognized that breastfeeding should be encouraged and that babies who are breastfed receive numerous health and other benefits. The American Academy of Pediatrics, for example, recommends that women breastfeed their babies exclusively through the age of six months. Consequently, state legislatures have responded by passing laws to promote the public policy interests advanced by breastfeeding. Many states, for example, now have laws specifically stating that breastfeeding in public is not lewd behavior and that women have the right to breastfeed their children nearly any place they have a right to be.

Campaign Procedures Under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act

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Federal Employee Labor Union Rights and Duties

Title VII of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, known as the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, sets forth the law under which federal agency employees may be represented by a union or other labor organization for collective bargaining purposes. Pursuant to the Statute, most federal agency employees are entitled to join or organize labor unions.

Rights of Members of Federal Employee Unions

1n 1959, Congress passed the Labor-Management Relations and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) to protect members of private sector unions. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA) and the Foreign Service Act of 1980 establish a number of rights for members of unions representing federal employees. The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), a division of the Employment Standards Administration of the United States Department of Labor, is tasked with enforcing and administering these provisions, as well as those of the LMRDA.