ALJ Finds Employer's Pizza Party, Cash and Gift Card Bonuses Interfered with Union Election

SBM Management Services, Inc. provides custodial services for certain commercial facilities. After the company took over the custodial contract at a particular facility, it had regular employee meetings on Fridays. At the meeting six days before a union election, SBM provided pizza for employees and certain employees were given bonus checks or gift cards, neither of which were common or regular occurrences. The election was conducted and only eight votes were cast in favor of the union, which then filed objections to SBM's conduct as allegedly affecting the results of the election.  The matter proceeded to an unfair labor practice proceeding to determine whether SBM violated section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act such that the results of the election should be set aside. More ›

NLRB Reverses Course, Finds that Employees have Right to use Employers’ Email for Union Organizing

In a decision made public on December 12, the National Labor Relations Board have ruled that employees have a presumptive right to use employers’ email systems on nonworking time for union organizing and other purposes that are protected by the National Labor Relations Act. In other words, if an employer provides its employees with access to a company email system, the employer must then allow employees to use that email system to discuss terms and conditions of employment and to organize. The Board, overruling its own 2007 Register Guard decision, found that it could no longer “[close its] eyes to the importance of electronic means of communication to employees’ exercise of their rights under the Act.” “[E]mail has become such a significant conduit for employees’ communications with one another,” the Board found “that it is effectively a new ‘natural gathering place’.”  More ›

No Class Action Waivers in Arbitration Agreements, Says NLRB

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has decided to follow its own oft-criticized 2012 decision in D.R. Horton, holding that arbitration agreements barring class action lawsuits about working conditions, which are signed by employees as a condition of employment, are unlawful under the National Labor Relations Act. More ›

NLRB Finds that Employer Could Rescind Offers After Workers Discussed Detailed Insubordination Plans on Facebook

In a (rare) positive social media decision for employers, the NLRB ruled on October 28th in Richmond District Neighborhood Center, Case 20–CA–091748 (Oct. 28, 2014), that two employees who discussed their insubordination plans in great detail in a Facebook “comment thread” lost the National Labor Relations Act’s protections. The discussion, the Board held, was not "protected, concerted activity," and the employees, therefore, could not file an unfair labor practice charge after they were not rehired as a result of their comments.  More ›

NLRB Expands Definition of "Protected Activity"

Margaret Elias, a cashier at the grocery store chain, sought to file an internal sexual harassment complaint after a note she wrote on a whiteboard in the employee breakroom was altered with some offensive comments and illustrations. In preparing her complaint, Elias drew a copy of the whiteboard alterations and asked her manager and two of her coworkers to sign the illustration. Elias told each of the individuals she asked to sign the drawing that she was planning on filing a complaint with management. After obtaining the signatures, Elias added comments to the paper stating that she considered the whiteboard alterations to constitute sexual harassment. Elias admitted that she never intended to file a joint complaint on behalf of any other employees, but that she believed that other female employees would also be offended by the conduct and wanted to stop it from happening again. More ›

After NLRB v. Canning: A Practical Guide for Employers

The Supreme Court's decision last week in NLRB v. Canning left many employers scratching their heads—and with good reason.

Sure, the unanimous ruling served as a rebuke to the Obama Administration, and hundreds of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rulings expanding employee rights and protections have been wiped off the books.  But what exactly is the current state of the law?  And how should you, as an employer, proceed in terms of creating and implementing employment-related policies? More ›

Supreme Court Strikes NLRB Recess Appointments

The United States Supreme Court has struck down President Obama's controversial 2012 nominations to the NLRB, holding that the President violated the Constitution by using his recess appointments power when the Senate was still in session.

The ruling in NLRB v. Noel Canning calls into question hundreds of mostly pro-union NLRB decisions rendered by the improperly constituted board. It also will limit the ability of future presidents unilaterally to fill agency vacancies with highly partisan appointees. More ›

NLRB Finds Policy Requiring Employees to Represent Employer in a “Positive and Professional” Manner is Unlawful

In a decision issued earlier this week, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that portions of an employer’s standards of conduct policy were unlawful because they could be reasonably construed to prohibit employees’ right to engage in protected activity under the National Labor Relations Act. The decision can only be described as the most recent in an increasingly long series of these cases, in which the Board has consistently found that language thought by an employer to be reasonable and appropriate actually violated the Act. More ›

Compliance: Employers closely watching Supreme Court’s ruling in Canning

The Court’s ruling will likely define the scope of the president’s recess appointments power for future administrations.

It’s easy to identify recess in an elementary school day: The bell rings, the kids tumble out of class, and the yard fills with playful shrieks and laughter.

Not so with Congress. The U.S. Senate’s chambers may be dark, official business on hold, the senators all home on vacation, and yet the legislative body may still be in session. More ›

NLRB: Unions can Picket on Private Walkways in California

After a grocery store opened a warehouse grocery store under a different name in Sacramento, California, the store became a target for union picketing. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 8 began picketing the store because the workers were not represented by a union and did not have a collective bargaining agreement. The Union agents held signs and distributed fliers in front of the store’s entrance and walkways, but did not impede customer access to the store. The grocery store contacted the Sacramento Police Department to remove the Union agents, but the police declined to do so without a court order. More ›