On March 7, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced that the two agencies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) creating a formal partnership that allows the two agencies to share data with each other. The agencies highlighted this new partnership’s potential to protect American workers from:

  • employer surveillance and monitoring
  • data collection
  • employer-driven debt created from the purchase of equipment, supplies, or required training

The MOU will allow the NLRB to access nonpublic data from the CFRB. This includes any relevant ongoing CFRB investigations, matters, and proceedings. The CFRB was founded in 2011 in the aftermath of the 2008-09 financial crisis, and ensures that “markets for consumer financial products are fair, transparent, and competitive for American workers”.

The MOU will remain in effect indefinitely. Either agency, however, can decide to withdraw from participating in the agreement after giving 30 days notice to the other agency.

The partnership follows an October 2022 memo from NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, which also focused on the potential dangers of employer surveillance on workers. In the October memo, Abruzzo identified the CFRB as a potential collaborator, because of the agency’s past experience investigating employer monitoring and productivity tracking technology. Abruzzo, in a public statement accompanying the MOU, stated that she was concerned over employers’ use of artificial intelligence to chill workers from exercising their labor rights.

This also is not the first partnership the NLRB has made during the Biden Administration. In January 2022, the NLRB partnered with the Department of Labor on a similar information sharing initiative. Following that partnership, Abruzzo indicated in a February 2022 memo that she intended to strengthen partnerships with other federal agencies to better protect worker rights.

As always, we will keep you informed of any updates on this interagency collaboration.

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Photo of Joshua Fox Joshua Fox

Joshua S. Fox is a senior counsel in the Labor & Employment Law Department and a member of the Sports, Labor-Management Relations, Class and Collective Actions and Wage and Hour Groups.

As a member of the Sports Law Group, Josh has represented several…

Joshua S. Fox is a senior counsel in the Labor & Employment Law Department and a member of the Sports, Labor-Management Relations, Class and Collective Actions and Wage and Hour Groups.

As a member of the Sports Law Group, Josh has represented several Major League Baseball Clubs in all aspects of the salary arbitration process, including the Miami Marlins, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants, Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays. In particular, Josh successfully represented the Miami Marlins in their case against All-Star Catcher J.T. Realmuto, which was a significant club victory in salary arbitration. Josh also represents Major League Baseball and its clubs in ongoing litigation brought by current and former minor league players who allege minimum wage and overtime violations. Josh participated on the team that successfully defended Major League Baseball in a wage-and-hour lawsuit brought by a former volunteer for the 2013 All-Star FanFest, who alleged minimum wage violations under federal and state law. The lawsuit was dismissed by the federal district court, and was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Josh also has extensive experience representing professional sports leagues and teams in grievance arbitration proceedings, including playing a vital role in all aspects of the grievance challenging the suspension for use of performance-enhancing drugs of then-New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Josh also has counseled NHL Clubs and served on the trial teams for grievances alleging violations of the collective bargaining agreement, including cases involving use of performance-enhancing substances, domestic violence issues, and supplementary discipline for on-ice conduct. He has played a key role in representing professional sports leagues in all aspects of their collective bargaining negotiations with players and officials, including the Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, the National Football League, Major League Soccer, the Professional Referee Organization, and the National Basketball Association,.

In addition, Josh has extensive experience representing clients in the performing arts industry, including the New York City Ballet, New York City Opera, Big Apple Circus, among many others, in collective bargaining negotiations with performers and musicians, the administration of their collective bargaining agreements, and in grievance arbitrations.

Josh also represents a diverse range of clients, including real estate developers and contractors, pipe line contractors, hospitals, hotels, manufacturers and public employers, in collective bargaining, counseling on general employment matters and proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board, New York State Public Employment Relations Board and arbitrators.

Josh has also recently served as an adjunct professor at Cornell University’s School of Industrial Labor Relations for the past two years, teaching a course regarding Major League Baseball salary arbitration.

Prior to joining Proskauer, Josh worked for a year and a half at the National Hockey League, where he was involved in all labor and employment matters, including preparations for collective bargaining, grievance arbitration, contract drafting and reviewing and employment counseling. Josh also interned in the labor relations department of Major League Baseball and at Region 2 of the National Labor Relations Board. He was a member of the Brooklyn Law Review and the Appellate Moot Court Honor Society and served as president of the Brooklyn Entertainment and Sports Law Society.