Blog

NLRA

NLRB Returns to More Lenient Standard for Employees’ Abusive and Profane Misconduct
May 5, 2023
The National Labor Relations Board announced a return to the pre-2020 “setting-specific” standard in cases where employees are disciplined for misconduct occurring during the course of activity protected by the National Labor Relations Act.
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NLRB General Counsel Clarifies Enforcement Posture on Unlawful Separation Agreement Provisions
March 28, 2023
On March 22, 2023, the National Labor Review Board issued a General Counsel Memorandum (GC Memo 23-05) providing additional guidance on the NLRB’s recent ruling in McLaren Macomb, 372 NLRB No. 58, which held that inclusion of overly broad non-disparagement and confidentiality clauses in severance agreements are unlawful under the National Labor Relations Act.
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NLRB General Counsel Provides Clarification on Severance Agreement Non-Disparagement and Confidentiality Provisions
March 22, 2023
The NLRB recently asserted that severance agreements may not contain general non-disparagement or confidentiality/non-disclosure clauses, based on its premise that such clauses violate the rights of employees under Section 7 of the NLRA to engage in concerted activity for their mutual aid or protection (i.e. “protected concerted activity”).
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Your Neutral Uniform Policy May Violate the NLRA
September 7, 2022
This case arose in the backdrop of a union organizing campaign, when Tesla employees first wore black cotton shirts at work, with the union’s campaign slogan, “Driving a Fair Future at Tesla” on the front and a larger logo with the slogan and “UAW” on the back.
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NLRB Issues Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Joint-Employer Status
September 7, 2022
On September 6, 2022, the National Labor Relations Board issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking as to the legal standard for determining joint-employer status under the National Labor Relations Act.
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NLRB General Counsel Urges Board to Find Captive Audience Speeches are Unlawful
April 18, 2022
For decades, employers have been permitted to hold mandatory meetings or “captive audience speeches” in response to union organizing campaigns to present the company’s position on unionization. On April 7, 2022, the National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memorandum expressing that the NLRB should declare such meetings to be unlawful.
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A Proactive Look at the PRO Act
February 9, 2021
With the Democratic Party now holding a narrow majority in the Senate, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (“PRO Act”) has newfound life a year after dying upon passage by the House majority on February 10, 2020.
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NLRB Reminds Unions That Information Requests Are A Two-Way Street
June 1, 2020
The National Labor Relations Board recently ruled that UNITE HERE's Local 1 violated the National Labor Relations Act by failing and refusing to respond to an employer’s information requests.
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Recent NLRB Ruling Demonstrates How Profanity And Threats Can Be Protected Activity
April 23, 2020
In a recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board we are reminded that protected activity is not always polite and that the National Labor Relations Act protects such conduct unless it is “sufficiently egregious or opprobrious to remove it from the protection of the Act.”
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NLRB To Expand Definition of Effective Recommendation of Discipline?
December 27, 2019
In its unpublished decision in Bloomsburg Care and Rehabilitation Center, the National Labor Relations Board expressed a willingness to reconsider, and likely expand, what constitutes an alleged supervisor’s ability to “effectively recommend” discipline.
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Calling Employer “Stupid” Protected Under NLRA
December 19, 2019
The case of Roseburg v. Forest Products Company and Carpenters Industrial Council Local Union No. 2949 (NLRB Nov. 29, 2019), involved the scope of an employee’s protected activity when criticizing the company on the union’s Facebook page.
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Unfettered Free Speech or Profane Outbursts? NLRB Invites Input to Determine Scope of Section 7 Protection
October 11, 2019
The National Labor Relations Board is inviting input “to aid the Board in reconsidering the standards for determining whether profane outbursts and offensive statements of a racial or sexual nature, made in the course of otherwise protected activity” should lose the protection of Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.
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Tweets Follow

May 31

(Not Terribly Useful) Guidance from the DOL on the FMLA and Holidays https://t.co/VIdfaFNmJD

May 30

EEOC Updates COVID-Related Guidance For Employers As The Feds Declare An End To The Public Health Emergency https://t.co/Md5EWXH0SI

May 26

The EEOC Targets the Use of AI in Employment Decisions https://t.co/ckOgw79jaT