Articles and Blogs

On August 12, 2013, for the first time since August 21, 2003, the National Labor Relations Board has a full complement of five Senate-confirmed members. Four new members, all nominated by President Obama and confirmed last month by the U.S. Senate, have been sworn into office. NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce was also confirmed... READ MORE

When this statement was made by an employee during an EEOC mediation the employer was shocked to say the least.  Shocked and shaken by the employee’s outburst, the employer fired the angry employee within the hour.  True to his word, the employee then filed a federal law suit for retaliation for participating in the EEOC’s proceeding. ... READ MORE

The NLRB’s rule requiring private sector employers to post a “Notice of Employee Rights” took another hit from another federal appeals court.  The rule that was scheduled to go into effect early in 2012 was enjoined by lower federal courts last year and was ultimately struck down by a decision of a federal appeals... READ MORE

The National Labor Relations Board has, for at least the past two years, been focusing on private employer policies that interfere with employee rights to engage in protected concerted activity for their mutual aid and protection.  Employer policies that prohibit talking about wages, hours and working conditions while at or away from work have... READ MORE

Notice Posting Rule Is Struck Down Back in August 2011, the NLRB published a rule that would require private employers to post in conspicuous places a government poster intended to notify employees of their rights under the NLRA.  Business groups challenged the rule, and the NLRB delayed the effective date several times.  Then in early 2012,... READ MORE

Confidentiality Requirements Challenged by the NLRB Last summer, the NLRB created another stir among private employers when it found that an employer’s form used during confidential investigations of workplace issues was unlawfully broad and interfered with employee rights.  We wrote about this development in our August 7, 2012 HR Insights article Confidential Investigations –... READ MORE

Talk of Job Security Is “Inherently” Concerted and Protected We all know by now that private employees are protected if they engage in concerted activity for their mutual aid or protection.  We also know that the protections afforded employees under the NLRA can be interpreted quite broadly.  The current NLRB has done just that... READ MORE

NLRB to Petition for Supreme Court Review of Recess Appointments The National Labor Relations Board today announced that it has determined not to seek en banc rehearing in Noel Canning v. NLRB, in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that the January 4, 2012 recess appointments of three members... READ MORE

Confidentiality, Public Relations and Blogging Policies Held to Be Unlawful As we reported in our Employment Law News article in January, the NLRB has been very active in challenging any employer policy that could reasonably be understood by an employee to interfere with rights protected under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”).  The NLRA... READ MORE

Three NLRB Members Not Valid Recess Appointments As we predicted last year, President Obama’s three recess appointments to the NLRB faced a significant constitutional legal challenge.  On January 25, 2012, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in a unanimous opinion ruled that the president’s recess appointments to the NLRB in... READ MORE