The General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a Guidance Memorandum last week establishing her position that certain players at academic institutions are employees as defined by National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). If collegiate athletes are protected as “employees” under the NLRA, then these athletes would have rights to organize and join
Unions
SCOTUS Takes the Power Back: Strikes Down a California Rule Giving Union Organizers the Right to Access Employers’ Land
By Austin Wolfe on
Posted in Unions
The U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a California regulation that required agriculture employers to give union organizers access to their premises. The Court held that by requiring employers to provide such access, the regulation amounted to an unconstitutional taking of private property in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Below,…
Why the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act) Keeps us Awake at Night
By Adam Santucci on
Posted in Unions, Workplace Trends
The United States House of Representatives has passed the PRO Act, which now moves to the Senate for consideration. If passed, the PRO Act would probably be the most radical, and union friendly, change to U.S. labor law since the passage of the National Labor Relations Act (Act) in 1935. And it is keeping us…
NLRB Restores Decades Old Case Law Related to Employee Discipline Prior to Negotiation of a First Contract
By Adam Santucci on
Posted in Unions
The National Labor Relations Board has restored a prior standard, one that had stood for about 80 years before being overturned in 2016, which governs an employer’s duty to bargain over employee discipline during the time period between when a new union is certified and a first contract is negotiated. In 800 River Road Operating…
NLRB Adopts Single Rule to Evaluate Employee Misconduct
By Adam Santucci on
The National Labor Relations Board has traditionally applied separate tests to evaluate whether employee discipline violated the National Labor Relations Act, depending on the context of the underlying misconduct. This has resulted in heightened protection for employee misconduct that takes place during the course of protected activity, such as strikes. However, in General Motors LLC…
NLRB Suspends Union Elections in Response to COVID-19
By Micah T. Saul on
Posted in Unions
COVID-19’s impact on workplace matters continues to broaden. The National Labor Relations Board, which has jurisdiction over most private sector employers, announced on Thursday that all union elections within its purview are suspended for two weeks. Importantly, the suspension applies to both in-person and mail-in voting.
The Board implemented the freeze due to concerns over…
NLRB Joint Employer Saga Comes to an End (for now) with New Final Rule
By Adam Santucci on
Posted in Employer Liability, Unions
On February 26, 2020, the National Labor Relations Board issued a final rule governing joint-employer status under the National Labor Relations Act. The final rule restores the test that the Board had applied for several decades prior to the 2015 Obama-era decision in Browning-Ferris. The final rule also provides more clear guidance on the issue,…
NLRB Brings Some Clarity, Consistency and Sanity to Confidential Investigations
By Adam Santucci on
Posted in Unions
The flurry of activity from National Labor Relations Board in late 2019 was a fairly consistent drum beat of good news for employers. In many cases, the Board restored decades of precedent that had been upended by the Board during the Obama administration. Some would say the Board restored order and sanity in the world…
NLRB Issues Rule Repealing Key Components of Quickie Election Rules
By Adam Santucci on
Posted in Unions
If you follow our blog, you know that the National Labor Relations Board’s election rules have been a hot topic over the past several years. The Board’s election rules are critical, because time can often make a difference in whether a union election is won or lost.
In 2011, the Board started the process to…
NLRB (Mostly) Restores Employers’ Right to Restrict Use of Their Email Systems
By Micah T. Saul on
Posted in Unions
In 2014, the NLRB held in Purple Communications that employers must allow their employees to use company email systems to engage in union activities and other protected conduct under the National Labor Relations Act. Last year, we reported that the NLRB was set to re-examine the controversial Purple Communications decision. The Board did just that…