So, yesterday, it was all about some House Republicans introducing legislation to constrain the enforcement efforts of the EEOC. Then, I read this story from Ramsey Cox at TheHill.com. It seems some Senate Republicans are taking aim at the National Labor Relations Board.
More after the jump…
It’s easier than you think. Indeed, a recent decision from the National Labor Relations Board bears this out.
Details after the jump…
Last week, the National Labor Relations Board issued this memorandum in which it has instructed regional offices to encourage employees to file complaints with the United States Department of Labor if the the regional NLRB office “believes that an employer may have violated a substantive or anti-retaliation provision of [OSHA] or the FLSA.”
Remember that the National Labor Relations Act covers more than just unionized employers and workplace. For example, many of the social media cases involving the NLRB that you may have read about actually involve non-union workplaces. So, if you haven’t gotten the message already, this NLRB initiative is another wake-up call to get your house in order.
Otherwise, you may have multiple federal agencies up in your business.
In a unanimous opinion delivered yesterday (here) in NLRB v. Noel Canning, the Supreme Court concluded that President Obama’s so-called “recess appointments” of three of the five members of the National Labor Relations Board between the Senate’s January 3 and January 6 pro forma sessions were unconstitutional.
Amy Howe from SCOTUSblog.com summarized the decision “in plain english”:
“[A]ny recess that is shorter than three days is not long enough to make a recess appointment necessary. And a recess that is longer than three days but shorter than ten days will, in the normal case, also be too short to necessitate a recess appointment.”
What with me gabbing on about firefighters afraid of fighting fires, butt grabs, and some Delaware lawyer starving himself over social media, I missed this National Labor Relations Board decision, in which the Board basically held that, as long as you don’t go too far and pull a Latrell Sprewell, you can curse out your boss with impunity.
Literally, you can call your boss a “f*%king crook,” an “a$$hole,” and “stupid” on a Friday, and still have a job to come back to on Monday.
God bless America.
How many of you have social media policies, which contain a provision that reads something like this…
“If you identify yourself as an associate of the Company and publish any work-related information online, you must use this disclaimer: ‘The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent the positions, strategies or opinions of the Company.'”
Yeah, I write these disclaimers all the time for clients. Apparently, they’re unlawful.
The third week of April ushers in several holidays: Passover, Good Friday, Easter.
But no matter what your religion or god — even a sacrilicious ceiling waffle — we can all agree that the Employment Law Blog Carnival, which you can find this month at Tim Eavenson’s blog: Current Employment, is the workplace glory.
This month, Tim has more posts about HR-compliance than you can count on your ten fingers. So raise your hands up to the sky and shout Hosanna! The power of the #ELBC compels you!
Sorry, gang. Last night was my fantasy baseball auction. And I got home hella-late. So, no post today.
Ahhhhhh, I can’t totally leave you hangin’. So, you can read about how the University of Northwestern football team can now organize and form a union (here), or you can grade my fantasy baseball team (right) in the comments below.
Oh, no. Meyer’s slacking. Let the unsubscribes begin!
Over the past several years, seemingly, we’re seen the NLRB take a more active interest in employee handbooks.
We’ve certainly seen it with respect to social media policies; especially, where these policies purport to limit the rights of employees to discuss their employment with one another. This is because Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act allows employees to discuss their terms and conditions of employment together.
And you don’t need to have a union either. The act applies in most every private-sector workplace.
Yesterday, I read with interest Jon Hyman’s post at the Ohio Employer’s Law Blog about how Target has employed a 14-minute training video to help keep its workplace union free. Gawker has posted a copy of the video here. Like a bear crapping in the woods, Gawker pokes fun of the Target video. Cheesiness aside, I find it to be pretty effective.
But Target ain’t got nothing on Subaru of Wichita. (h/t Jeff Nowak)
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