Protected Concerted Activity

The NLRB has ruled that, under the particular circumstances, an employer representative lawfully barred a union representative from asking questions during an investigatory interview while the employer representative was questioning the employee to get his version of events. PAE Applied Technologies, LLC, 367 NLRB No. 105 (Mar. 8, 2019). NLRB Chairman John Ring and Member William Emanuel joined in the decision. Member Lauren McFerran dissented.
Continue Reading NLRB: Employer Lawfully Took Control of Investigatory Interview

The National Labor Relations Board is affording dozens of employers the chance to have cases involving the legality of their workplace rules re-evaluated under a 2017 Board decision. The Board decision overruled Obama-era Board precedent that hampered employers’ ability to maintain workplace conduct rules without running afoul of the National Labor Relations Act. The Board’s

The National Labor Relations Board’s office of the General Counsel is urging the Board to overrule its decision in Purple Communications, Inc., 361 NLRB 1050 (2014), which allowed employees to use employer email systems for NLRA Section 7 purposes (e.g., union organizing and protected concerted activity) during nonworking time.

On August 1, 2018, the Board

The National Labor Relations Board has invited briefs on whether it should modify or overrule its rule under the National Labor Relations Act, established in Purple Communications, that employers must permit employees who have been provided access to their employer’s email system to use that system for statutorily protected communications on their non-working time. Rio

The National Labor Relations Board General Counsel’s Division of Advice has concluded that an employer could refuse to allow a union’s representatives to record monthly team meetings and investigatory interviews. GE Appliances, Haier, 21-CA-202535 (Div. of Advice, Apr. 17, 2018, released May 15, 2018). The Division found the refusal was lawful based upon the

On June 6, NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb, the NLRB’s chief prosecutor, issued a detailed, 20-page Memorandum to the NLRB Regional Offices entitled “Guidance on Handbook Rules Post-Boeing.” (As General Counsel, Robb decides which unfair labor practice charges filed in the various NLRB regional offices should be pursued. Through his memorandum, GC Robb

Class action waivers in employment arbitration agreements do not violate federal law, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a much-anticipated decision in three critical cases. Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, No. 16-285; Ernst & Young LLP et al. v. Morris et al., No. 16-300; National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has refused to enforce the NLRB’s order finding that an employee’s discharge violated the National Labor Relations Act because the Board did not satisfy the Supreme Court’s two-prong Jefferson Standard test for determining whether an employee’s disparaging statements to third parties about his employer

The U.S. has more than 6,000 charter schools. They are authorized in almost every state. While state laws vary, their purpose is the same: to permit alternatives to traditional public schools, unbound by local school districts or district-wide collective bargaining agreements that can stifle innovation.

These laws frame charters as public schools, subject to the

The National Labor Relations Board has held that an employee lost the protection of the National Labor Relations Act when he improperly accessed a secure area of the employer’s hotel, even though he did so in order to engage in otherwise protected concerted activity. KHRG Employer, LLC, 366 NLRB No. 22 (Feb. 28, 2018).