Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit joined the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Circuits in upholding the Board’s Specialty Healthcare standard for determining appropriate bargaining units under the National Labor Relations Act, although with a very skeptical eye on how it applied. Constellation
NLRB Majority Stuns Nation By Ruling Employer Has Management Right, Chairman Dissents
By Mark Theodore on
In another example of the inconsistency of the current state of Board law, a 2-1 majority of the NLRB ruled that an employer not only had a management right but it wasn’t necessary that this right be expressly set forth in the parties’ contract. This is certainly odd because the…
Employer Claims Of Unprofitability And Competitive Disadvantage Enough To Trigger Audit Of Financials By Union, NLRB Majority Concludes
By Mark Theodore on
The end of another NLRB fiscal year is upon us. Today, September 30, marks the last date of the fiscal year. We can expect to see a number of decisions issue from the Board, and many determinations made at the regional level, as the agency attempts to pump up its…
Split D.C. Circuit Panel Upholds NLRB: DirecTV Violated NLRA By Terminating Technicians For Statements Made During A News Interview
By Mark Theodore & Laura Fant on
In a 2-1 ruling in DirecTV Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed the NLRB’s ruling that DirecTV must reinstate technicians who were terminated for complaining about a company pay policy during a television interview, finding that the employees’ conduct…
Labor Day Wouldn’t Be Labor Day Without New NLRB Decisions
By Mark Theodore on
The onset of Labor Day and the end of the NLRB fiscal year (September 30) one can count on seeing a number of decisions issued. This year is no different, and perhaps more are being issued during these last few days because Member Hirozawa’s term expired on Saturday August 27.…
NLRB Enforces Ambush Election Rules…..Then Finds Way Around Them
By Mark Theodore on
There has been a lot of hype about the so-called NLRB ambush election rules. These are, of course, the NLRB’s take on fixing what it deemed a broken secret ballot election scheme, one allegedly marred by employers gaming the system to delay a secret ballot election. Of the many new…
NLRB Rules That Graduate Students Are Employees
Earlier today, the National Labor Relations Board (“the Board”) issued its long awaited decision in Columbia University. Not surprisingly, the Board, in a 3-1 decision, overturned 12 years of precedent by ruling that “student assistants” (including assistants engaged in research funded by external grants) who have a “common law” …
Non-Compete Agreement A Mandatory Subject of Bargaining, NLRB Rules
By Mark Theodore on
The first day of employment is often chaotic. New employees must learn their way around the jobsite, meet (and remember the names of) many new people and otherwise familiarize themselves with working at a new job. Oh, and there’s the paperwork. Seemingly endless mounds of paperwork. New employees are asked…