Labor and Employment

Union Relations

• For more than 30 years, our attorneys have handled labor negotiations for Temple University. We served as counsel to Temple's chief negotiator in talks with unions representing 13 bargaining units, including the faculty. In 1987 and 1990, when the faculty struck, we helped Temple through particularly difficult negotiations by, among other things, obtaining an unprecedented back-to-work order, preserving the fall semester. In 2008 and 2009, Ballard Spahr served as the chief negotiator for Temple in its faculty negotiations.

Wage and Hour Class Action Defense

• We are defending a major telecommunications company sued as a joint employer in several jurisdictions for failing to pay overtime for all hours worked. We represent the company in Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey in "opt-in" collective actions under the FLSA and class actions under various state wage and hour laws. We obtained summary judgment in Maryland finding our client is not a joint employer.

Discrimination Class Action Defense

• We defended a large energy company being sued by a class of more than 2,000 employees claiming reverse discrimination and age discrimination. We successfully challenged class certification based on the absence of commonality and typicality and persuaded the plaintiffs to drop the collective action age claim.

Labor and Employment Reorganization Implications

• We advised a prominent Philadelphia-based health system on the labor implications as well as obligations under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) related to the closing of a unionized facility.

Public Sector

• Since 1997, Ballard Spahr has represented SEPTA in its dealings with its largest union, the Transport Workers Union, Local 234, serving as primary counsel for the handling of grievance arbitrations. We have successfully defended unfair labor charges and also serve on the SEPTA teams negotiating with the Fraternal Order of Transit Police, as well as with Local 234.