Since COVID, the number of decisions coming out of BALCA has really ground to a crawl. While fewer cases are being filed now than in the past, they’re still working through the backlog pretty slowly. I don’t know that any of these cases are all that revelatory, but a few notes are below from decisions coming out in the past few months.

In Liberty Mutual Group, the employer and worker kind of dodged a bullet. There were clearly conflicting statements on the PERM form about what the actual minimal requirements for the position were, but the CO denied it on a catch-all basis rather than the correct statutory one, which practice was disallowed in 2016. If there is a specific statutory basis for the denial, it has to be listed. This is one of those things that illustrates the unforgiven program rules also muck up the DOL as well. With that being said, of course, this highlights that we do not have the greatest system in place.

This one was kind of a bummer, but the result was the only correct one under the law. A school district was trying to retain a special education teacher, but botched the Notice of Filing and the PERM was properly denied.

A case involving Intel shows how long these things can drag on sometimes. The reconsideration request was filed in 2013 and the final decision came just late last year. I do not have much to say on this except that it appears to be a case where the original CO was working really hard to deny the case for whatever reason and based the decision on incorrect (clearly) analysis of the relevant facts. Fortunately, the Board stepped in to correct it… after many years.