The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have agreed to team up to investigate and enforce protections for workers who raise safety concerns and suffer retaliation as a result.
Continue Reading NLRB and OSHA Enter Into Collaboration Agreement To Pursue Violations Implicating Both NLRA and OSH Act
On August 2, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) adopted a new standard for assessing whether workplace rules, including policies found in handbooks, infringe upon employees’ rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), in violation of Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA.
Continue Reading NLRB Issues New Standard for Scrutinizing Employers’ Workplace Rules
The National Labor Relations Board’s General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued Memorandum GC 23-05 which provides additional guidance on the recent NLRB decision in McLaren Macomb regarding confidentiality and nondisparagement clauses
Continue Reading NLRB General Counsel Issues Guidance on Recent Decision Regarding Confidentiality and Non-Disparagement Clauses
The holidays arrived early last week for employers and management-side labor attorneys, as the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision approving employer policies that prohibit the discussion of pending workplace investigations. In Apogee Retail LLC d/b/a Unique Thrift Store and Kathy Johnson, Cases 27-CA-191574 and 27-CA-198058, the Board considered two workplace rules: “one requiring employees to ‘maintain confidentiality’ regarding workplace investigations into ‘illegal or unethical behavior’ and the other prohibiting ‘unauthorized discussion’ of investigations or interviews ‘with other team members.’”
Continue Reading NLRB Approves of Employer Policies Requiring Confidential Workplace Investigations
In an effort to resolve a hotly debated legal issue spanning decades for private college and university employers, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently released a proposed rule that would effectively block college students from unionizing.
Continue Reading Calling All Campuses: NLRB Proposes New Rule to Block College Student Labor Unions
On June 1, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which covers Connecticut, New York and Vermont, upheld a National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) finding that Whole Foods Market Group, Inc.’s no-recording policy was overbroad and violated the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”).
In Whole Foods Market Group, Inc. v. NLRB, Whole Foods’ employee handbook contained a provision that prohibited employees from recording conversations, phone calls, and meetings, without first obtaining managerial approval. The court concluded that this no-recording policy violated the NLRA. The NLRA deems it an unfair labor practice “to interfere with, restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of their rights [to, among other things, engage in concerted activities for the purposes of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.] Whole Foods insisted that its policy was not intended to interfere with employees’ rights to engage in concerted activity or to prevent them from discussing their jobs, and that it was merely a general prohibition against recording in the workplace. Whole Foods argued that its policy was “to promote employee communication in the workplace” by assuring employees that their remarks would not be recorded.Continue Reading Employer No-Recording Policies May Violate NLRA Says the Second Circuit