Category: NLRB
NLRB Confronts Confrontational Clothing Ban
Earlier this year, the National Labor Relations Board, in Medco Health Solutions of Las Vegas, Inc. , 364 N.R.R.B. No. 115 (Aug. 27, 2016), found that a dress code policy that banned "confrontational" clothing banned federal labor law. The case, stemmed from an incident in which the Company ordered...
NLRB Blurs the Lines Between Being a Student and Being an Employee
As reported by my colleague Erik Peters last week, the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") has again reversed course and held that graduate students at private universities may unionize. See Columbia University , 364 NLRB No. 90 (2016). Until 2000, the NLRB consistently held that graduate students working at...
NLRB: Grad Students at Private Schools Can Join Unions
Well, law school certainly felt like a job to your humble correspondent, and now it appears that the National Labor Relations Board agrees. Actually, it's not quite that simple; however, on Tuesday, the NLRB ruled that grad students working as teaching and research assistants at private universities (specifically Columbia...
Policy to “Conduct only . . . business while at work” Found to Violate NLRA
The Casino Pauma expects employees to work while at work—a concept that is not foreign to many of us. In fact, they put the expectation into writing and placed in their employee handbook a clause which provided: "Team members are to conduct only Casino Pauma business while at work...
Beer Distributor Appeals NLRB Finding as to Terminated Union Employee Who Reeked of Marijuana
Appellate briefing to the Second Circuit was completed earlier this week in Manhattan Beer Distributors LLC v. NLRB , a case in which the NLRB, in 2015, held that Manhattan Beer Distributors violated an employee's Weingarten rights when they terminated a distribution employee who "reeked" of marijuana after he...
Benchslapped! EEOC & NLRB May Have to Pull Out Their Debit Cards
For those employment lawyers who believe that the EEOC and NLRB have tended to overreach of late (i.e., the defense bar), two separate decisions handed down against those agencies caused a distinct feeling of schadenfreude . 1 Or, as one legal scholar noted in a somewhat different context, "...
In Electing to Change 57-Year-Old Precedent, the NLRB Further Shortens the Time Employers Have to Respond to a Union Campaign
On January 29, 2016 the NLRB issued a decision in which it changed (under the guise of clarifying) one of the election rules for mail-ballot elections. See Guardsmark, LLC and Int'l Union, Security, Police, and Fire Prof'ls of Am. , 363 NLRB No. 103 (2016). At issue was at...
Is This Mic On?: NLRB Finds Whole Foods Policy Has Chilling Effect
Recently, the National Labor Relations Board reviewed upscale grocer Whole Foods' policy within its General Information Guide ("GIG") which banned employees' from recording in the workplace without prior management approval. Specifically the policy provided: In order to encourage open communication, free exchange of ideas, spontaneous and honest dialogue and...
D.C. Circuit Reminds Employers in Hyundai Decision to Steer Clear of Overbroad Work Rules and Policies
Do you want your employees to work during working hours? Do you want your employees to keep confidential information private? Do you have policies that address these issues? If so, the D.C. Circuit just sent you a reminder that such policies need to be tailored in order to avoid...
Does Your Social Media Policy Need An Anti-Parasitic Drug?
My Facebook news feed blew up last week with reaction to Martin Shkreli's company, Turing's, 5,000% increase in the price of the anti-parasitic drug Daraprim from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill. While an interesting case study in ethics, politics, and how health care and pharmaceuticals are managed...
NLRB Rules Northwestern Players Are “Outside the Field of Play”
Yesterday the NLRB issued a ruling in the Northwestern football players' attempt to unionize-- previously discussed here and here . While last year the Chicago office had issued a ruling permitting a group of 85 Northwestern University football players who receive university scholarships to form a union, the NLRB...
AT&T’s “Prison” Break: “Inmate” Employees Lose NLRB Appeal
While many of us feel like prisoners to our cell phones (not to be confused with prisons you can buy for your cell phone or companies that appear to specialize in inmate cell phone usage), what none of us want are prisoners working on our cell phones (or landlines...
President Obama Quickly Vetoes Congressional Attempt to Overturn NLRB “Quickie Election” Rule
Late last year we posted on the NLRB's finalized rules governing union election procedures which shortened the time period for employers to educate its workforces about the pros and cons of unionization. In response, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 232-186 to use the rarely exercised Congressional Review Act...
Manic Monday: Michigan Pre-Emptively “Tackles” the Unionized College Athlete Issue
On December 30, 2014, Governor Rick Snyder signed legislation (H.B. 6074) that excludes public college and university athletes in Michigan from the definition of "public employees" entitled to collectively bargain under Michigan law—thus effectively barring them from unionizing. The law's purpose was to ensure "that college athletes are students...
