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Siletz Tribe Raises Minimum Wage

February 17, 2016February 17, 2016Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here (PDF):

Siletz Tribe Raises Minimum Wage

The Siletz Tribal Council has raised the hourly minimum wage for employees of all tribal entities from $9.25 to $11 an hour.

The new minimum wage applies to Chinook Winds Casino Resort, including the hotel, golf course and fitness center. It also applies to all employees of the Tribal government and tribally owned entities, including the Siletz Tribal Business Corporation, Internal Audit Department and the Siletz Tribal Gaming Commission.

Tribal Council approved the raise effective Jan. 1, 2016, which will result in a small retroactive payment for employees currently making the tribal minimum wage. Annually, the increase means an extra $2,704 for a minimum wage employee working 30 hours a week. This additional income will help with the rising costs of groceries, gas, heath care, utilities, rent and recreation, which also benefits the local economy.

According to Tribal Chairman Delores Pigsley, “The Tribal Council sees the new tribal minimum wage as one way to help employees and their families to make ends meet.”

Saginaw Chippewa v. NLRB Cert Petition

February 15, 2016Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Here:

Saginaw Cert Petition and Appendix- Filed

Questions presented:

For more than sixty years, the National Labor Relations Board correctly declined to exercise jurisdiction over tribal operations on tribal lands. But in recent years, the Board has belatedly asserted the extraordinary power to regulate the on-reservation activities of sovereign Indian tribes, precipitating a three-way circuit split in the process. Nothing in the text of the National Labor Relations Act changed in that interval; it contains no language granting the Board authority over Indian tribes. Nor has the language of various Indian treaties, like those between the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and the United States, changed; they continue to recognize the Tribe’s authority to exclude non-members. And despite the Board’s complete lack of expertise in Indian law, the Board now dictates that some tribal operations are subject to the NLRA and others are not based on its evaluation of the centrality of certain functions to tribal sovereignty and subtle differences in treaty language.

This case presents two questions, both of which have divided the courts of appeals:

(1) Does the National Labor Relations Act abrogate the inherent sovereignty of Indian tribes and thus apply to tribal operations on Indian lands?

(2) Does the National Labor Relations Act abrogate the treaty-protected rights of Indian tribes to make their own laws and establish the rules under which they permit outsiders to enter Indian lands?

Lower court materials here.

Little River Band v. NLRB Cert Petition

February 15, 2016February 15, 2016Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Here:

Little River Petition and Appendix COMBINED

Question presented:

Whether the National Labor Relations Board exceeded its authority by ordering an Indian tribe not to enforce a tribal labor law that governs the organizing and collective bargaining activities of tribal government employees working on tribal trust lands.

Lower court materials here.