On May 17, 2019, the Office of the General Counsel (GC) released an advice memorandum dated December 20, 2018 signaling the National Labor Relations Board’s (Board) intent to continue to overturn precedent.
Continue Reading NLRB Poised to Exterminate the Cat and Rat, According to NLRB Advice Memo
Memorandum 19-05, issued by the NLRB Division of Operations Management of the Office of the General Counsel in March 2019, gives Regional Directors a new tool to expedite cases when a charged party fails to cooperate with an unfair labor practice (ULP) investigation. Instead of relying on investigative subpoenas to acquire additional information, Regional
On April 2, 2019, in a 3-1 decision split along party lines, the Trump administration’s National Labor Relations Board (Board) appointees significantly narrowed the circumstances under which a successor employer will be construed as a perfectly clear successor and forced to forfeit its right to set initial employment terms. The decision, Ridgewood Health Care Center Inc., and Ridgewood Health Services, Inc., overrules precedent which had established that a successor employer which uses discriminatory hiring practices to target less than all of the bargaining unit’s employees and deprives the union of majority status is a perfectly clear employer. The decision allows a successor employer to retain its right to unilaterally set the initial terms of employment despite its discriminatory actions that directly affect less than all of the predecessor employees.
Continue Reading NLRB Overrules Precedent and Limits Use of Perfectly Clear Exception in Successorship Law
The National Labor Relations Board has long recognized Weingarten rights—the rights to request assistance from union representatives during investigatory interviews by employers. Historically, the Board has limited the types of individuals that can serve in this union representative’s role to union officers that are not legal professionals. However, in the Board’s recent decision in Pacific
Unions commonly utilize clarification petitions to invoke accretion principles and try to bypass election procedures. However, the National Labor Relations Board’s recent decision in Recology Hay Road and Teamsters Local 315 illustrates how employers can avoid employee accretion into existing bargaining units by emphasizing the lack of interchange between bargaining unit employees and the non-bargaining unit employees at issue. Interchange occurs when employees alternate or transfer between positions.
Continue Reading The NLRB Pumps the Brakes on Union’s Accretion Efforts
Those involved in the world of healthcare cannot escape the ongoing debate regarding staffing levels at healthcare facilities. Main Coast Memorial Hospital recently became an unwitting focal point for this discussion. A number of internal communications between the nurses’ union and the Hospital over staffing resulted in a series of editorials in the local newspaper.
After years of stringent oversight, the National labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) is now loosening the reigns over workplace rules.
The Office of the General Counsel of the NLRB recently issued an advice memo analyzing the social media policy of Kumho Tires, a Georgia-based tire manufacturer. The General Counsel found the employer’s policy was facially lawful
An analysis of the NLRB General Counsel’s Memorandum
Introduction
On June 6, 2018, the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) General Counsel (“GC”) released a memorandum providing guidance on the NLRB’s recent decision in The Boeing Company, 365 NLRB No. 154. When responding to unfair practice charges involving employer handbook rules, the memo provides employers with an easy to follow roadmap to evaluate the legality of employer handbook language and rules.
Continue Reading How to Analyze Employer Handbook Rules in Light of Boeing
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed and remanded a pro-employee Board decision concerning an employee who had been discharged based on the “disparaging content” of the testimony he made before state legislators.
Back in October 2012, a bargaining unit employee of Oncor Electric Delivery Company (Bobby Reed) testified before
The National Labor Relations Board found that a union committed an unfair labor practice by repeatedly blocking ingress and egress to a hotel for periods of one to four minutes. The opinion provides details about the union’s picketing efforts as a part of an organizing campaign. The blockage occurred during at least ten separate occasions