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By: Robinson & Cole LLP

Blog Authors

Jeffrey White
Kelly Sweeney
Megan Baroni
Matthew Miklave
Nicole A. Bernabo
Pamela Elkow
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Latest from Manufacturing Law Blog

You may ask why we are using the words “economic downturn” in a post.  Most of our manufacturing clients are reporting strong sales and many economic pundits are saying that a recession is still far off into the future.  With that said, this is exactly the time to start thinking about your supply chain and your contracts.  Because, as many manufacturers know, supply chain and customer disputes rear their ugly head when the economy takes…
With the Trump Administration now in its 27th month (half-way through the first term), Federal agencies seem to be picking up the pace of fundamentally altering the legal landscape in which manufacturers operate.  Keeping up with these changes can be a full time job. In this blog post, I will highlight some of the more important legal changes the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has implemented with respect to work rules and policies.  Future posts…
OSHA recently announced that it is considering whether it should revise the powered industrial trucks standards for general, construction, and maritime industries. Powered industrial trucks include forklifts, fork trucks, motorized hand trucks, platform lift trucks, tractors, and other industrial trucks powered by an electric motor or internal combustion engine. The powered industrial trucks standards have not been updated since 1998, and OSHA is currently seeking public input to determine whether these standards should be revisited.…
Earlier this year, we posted our 2019 Corporate Compliance & Litigation Outlook.  In the post, we said the following with respect to tariffs: 2018 was the year of the “tariff” for manufacturers.  You could not read a manufacturing news story without mention of it.  There is a lot of hype around tariffs and other trade regulations.  Some companies have been able to absorb the costs by passing it on to their customers and others…
The United States Department of Labor finally published its proposed regulation raising the minimum salary to be paid under the “white collar” exceptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act.  To refresh your recollection, virtually every worker must be paid at least minimum wage (currently $7.25 per hour under federal law, with many states having a higher minimum wage) and overtime for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week.  Certain employees are “exempt”…
Thank you to my colleague, Emilee Mooney Scott, for this post. Emilee focuses her practice on chemicals and hazardous materials regulation and is counsel in our Environmental & Utilities Practice Group. As we previously outlined, the Toxic Substances Control Act (“TSCA”) was amended in 2016 to provide EPA with much broader authority to regulate “existing” chemical substances (i.e., those that are already in use in commerce).  While EPA has met its statutory deadlines…
This week, we are pleased to have a guest post from Kevin Daly.  Attorney Daly is a member of the firm’s Manufacturing Industry Group and also its Trade Compliance Team. On February 21, 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) entered into a settlement with Connecticut-based ZAG IP, LLC (ZAG) (formerly known as ZAG International, LLC) arising from alleged violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran.  Federal law presently …
  Manufacturers and those in the supply chain may have been watching as the federal courts and the National Labor Relations Board struggle to make sense out of widely different views of the “joint employer” standard.  Whatever result is ultimately reached will carry significant implications for manufacturers.  At stake?  When can a manufacturer be required to bargain over the terms and conditions of employment of a sub-manufacturer’s employees?  Or when can a manufacturer be required…
On Valentine’s Day, EPA showed a little love for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), announcing a sweeping plan to address PFAS contamination and protect public health. PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals that have been gaining a lot of attention, as described in our 2019 outlook. EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the PFAS Action Plan in a press conference yesterday, calling it “the most comprehensive, cross- agency action plan for a chemical…
This week’s post is somewhat breathless because so much happened or is about to happen.  You may have thought the government has been closed for the past 35 days. But just like great magicians who get you to watch their right hand while their left hand is going about the business of the trick, the parts of the federal government and their state counterparts which were opened continued at a breakneck pace. On the federal…