Some recent tweets that came across the @cnybj Twitter feed, offering various small business, technology, HR, and career tips.

SBA @SBAgov
3 Simple Things to Protect Against Cyberattacks: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USSBA/bulletins/25d6128

Angel Biz Advisors @AngelBiz
3 Cost Savings Every Small Business Should Look For – http://ow.ly/m0Up30puINr #finance #cost #smallbiz

Pocket of Money, LLC @PocketofMoney
How to Determine What Should Be Free Content https://buff.ly/2L3P8ij #Entrepreneur #smallbiz #SmallBusiness

Jumbiz @JumbizNews
How to Help Your Licensee Sell More Product http://dlvr.it/RCbpk5 #Entrepreneur #SmallBiz

NFIB @NFIB
Thanks to deregulation within the #EndangeredSpeciesAct, ranchers, farmers, homebuilders, and #SmallBiz owners are now less likely to lose the use of their property: https://www.nfib.com/content/news/environmental-regulations/changes-to-endangered-species-rule-a-win-for-small-business/

City of Syracuse @Syracuse1848
SOARING SUCCESS AT SYR World class terminal. More flights to more places. Recording breaking passengers. Mayor Walsh was on hand at the @SyracuseAirport Annual Meeting this week. Much progress to celebrate! New annual report here https://bit.ly/2k8rmIv

Simon Gibbard @simon_t_gibbard
Can you tell a scam URL from a legitimate one? Scammers are using Vietnamese characters to create look-a-like #scam website addresses to trick us into clicking. Always give the URL a good going over before clicking 

@VFConsulting @vfconsulting
This list goes to 11. #AI stats you need to know from leading research. By Preston Galla, tech author. https://oal.lu/oRYiK #data

Business Club @Business__Club
4 Steps to Monetize Your Social Media Following http://dlvr.it/RCP5Nt #SmallBiz #Marketing #BusinessGrowth #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneur

Inc. @Inc
4 ways to build a strong remote workforce @johnhall: https://www.inc.com/john-hall/4-ways-to-build-a-strong-remote-workforce.html?cid=sf01001

Evan Kirstel @evankirstel
How to prepare for a career in machine learning and artificial intelligence: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-prepare-for-a-career-in-machine-learning-and-artificial-intelligence/ 

Mark C. Crowley @MarkCCrowley
Malcolm Gladwell says leaders must demonstrate that they are #truthtellers & the starting point is to accept that it’s OK to be wrong. “Just say, ‘I blew it. Let’s try to figure out a better way.’ There’s such a longing for grace & clarity in our leaders.”

Mitch Mitchell @Mitch_M
4 Ways To Know If You Need To Be A Better Leader https://ttmitchellconsulting.com/Mitchblog/4-ways-to-know-if-you-need-to-be-a-better-leader/ #leadership

Hannah Morgan @careersherpa
If you think the #executive hiring process has been dehumanized by #ATS systems, you need to read this by @LisaRangel: http://chamres.com/433T

Dear Rusty: I am 60 years old. I have worked full time since age 22. I am thinking about working part-time from age 62-65. When I start collecting my Social Security benefit sometime after age 65, will my monthly amount be based on only the last few years of my working? Can you please explain how my monthly amount will be determined? 

Signed: Planning My Future 

Dear Planning: I admire that you’re thinking ahead to your retirement years and I’m happy to clarify this for you. Your Social Security benefit, when you claim it, will be based upon the highest earning 35 years of your lifetime working career (not only the last few years). To determine your benefit, the Social Security Administration will take your entire record of lifetime earnings, adjust each year for inflation, and select the 35 years in which you had the highest earnings. After totaling those years it will divide by 420 (the number of months in 35 years) to determine your “average indexed monthly earnings” (AIME). The agency then breaks your AIME into several parts (using what’s known as “bend points”) and then take a percentage of each part and add it up to arrive at what’s called your “primary insurance amount” (PIA). The “bend point” values change each year, but for 2019 they are $926 and $5,583. To compute your benefit, the formula will take 90 percent of the first $926 of your AIME; 32 percent of your AIME between $926 and $5,583; and 15 percent of any amount of your AIME over $5,583. The product of those three computations are added together to arrive at your PIA. 

Your PIA is the amount you will get at your full retirement age (FRA), which for you (born in 1959) is 66 years and 10 months. If you claim any earlier than your FRA, your benefit will be reduced — about 29 percent less if claimed at 62. If you wait beyond your FRA, the benefit will be more — 8 percent more for each year you delay, up to age 70 when maximum is reached. At age 70, your benefit will be about 25 percent more than it would be at your FRA. But a note of caution: any benefit estimates you have now from the Social Security Administration assume you’ll keep earning at your current level until you reach your FRA, so if you work part time starting at age 62 your benefit amounts will be less than those shown in the current estimates.

Finally, the above applies to your own individual Social Security retirement benefit from your own lifetime work record. If you are married, and your PIA is less than 50 percent of your husband’s PIA, then you might also be eligible for a spousal boost from your husband. Or if you are the higher earner, your husband might be eligible for a spousal boost from you when you claim your Social Security benefit.   

Russell Gloor is a certified Social Security advisor with the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC). The 2 million member AMAC says it is a senior advocacy organization. Send your questions to: SSadvisor@amacfoundation.org.

Author note: This article is intended for information purposes only and does not represent legal or financial guidance. It presents the opinions and interpretations of the AMAC Foundation’s staff, trained and accredited by the National Social Security Association (NSSA). NSSA and the AMAC Foundation and its staff are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other governmental entity.

On Aug. 12, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) published proposed rules with the goal of protecting “employees’ statutory right of free choice on questions concerning representation.” The proposed rules would amend three NLRB policies and practices that are not currently set forth in its rules and regulations: (1) the “blocking charge policy”; (2) the “voluntary recognition bar”; and (3) the standard of proof required to convert a Section 8(f) collective-bargaining relationship into a Section 9(a) bargaining relationship in the construction industry.

The Board’s current “blocking charge policy” allows a union to effectively derail an election by filing an unfair-labor-practice charge that allegedly creates doubt as to the validity of a decertification petition or as to the ability of employees to make a free choice concerning representation. Unions commonly file meritless unfair labor charges to delay decertification elections and certification elections they lack the necessary support to win. This tactic may delay the petitioned-for election for months, or even years. The NLRB’s proposed rule would impose a “vote and impound procedure” under which the election process continues despite the unfair labor-practice charge, the ballots are impounded after the election, and then counted after the charge has been resolved. The rule would also require a party requesting to block an election to file a written offer of proof that includes names of the witnesses who will testify in support of the charge and a summary of each witness’ anticipated testimony. With this rule, the NLRB hopes to prevent unions from filing meritless charges as a strategy to delay elections.

The Board also proposed a rule that would implement its 2007 Dana Corp. decision. In Dana Corp., the NLRB majority held that there would be no bar to an election following an employer’s grant of voluntary recognition unless: (1) affected unit employees receive adequate notice of the recognition and of their opportunity to file a decertification petition or rival union election petition within 45 days; and (2) 45 days pass from the date of the notice without the filing of a petition. The NLRB’s Dana Corp. decision was overruled by a new Board majority in its 2011 Lamons Gasket Company decision. In Lamons Gasket, the NLRB returned to an immediate voluntary recognition bar policy, without the 45-day notice and opportunity to file a decertification petition or rival union election petition. The Board’s proposed rule would overrule Lamons Gasket and codify its holding in Dana Corp.

Finally, the NLRB proposed a rule to change the standard of proof required to convert a Section 8(f) bargaining relationship into a Section 9(a) bargaining relationship in the construction industry. The significance of the distinction between these two different types of bargaining relationships is that a bargaining relationship under Section 9(a) bars subsequent decertification and rival union election petitions for three years, while a Section 8(f) bargaining relationship does not preclude the filing of a subsequent petition for a Board election. Current NLRB case precedent permits employers and unions to convert a Section 8(f) bargaining relationship into a Section 9(a) relationship as long as there is language in the collective-bargaining agreement that the union requested Section 9(a) representative recognition and offered to show evidence of its majority support. The Board’s proposal, if implemented, would raise the standard of proof. Under the proposed rule, the union must be able to present “positive evidence” — apart from contractual language — that the employer unequivocally accepted the union’s demand for Section 9(a) recognition based on a contemporaneous showing of support from a majority of employees in the bargaining unit. In the absence of such evidence, the parties’ relationship will remain a Section 8(f) relationship and there will be no bar to subsequent decertification or rival union-election petitions.

The NLRB’s proposed rule is open to public comments until Oct. 11, 2019. Comments can be submitted through the Federal eRulemaking Portal (https://www.regulations.gov/).      

Justin A. Reyes is an associate attorney in the labor and employment practice of Syracuse–based Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC. He works in the law firm’s Albany office. Contact Reyes at jreyes@bsk.com or (518) 533-3230. This viewpoint article is drawn from the firm’s New York Labor and Employment Law Report blog.