Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Merry Christmas employers—NLRB proposes posting of federal labor rights for ALL covered employees

Today is National Look on the Bright Side Day. I’m having a hard time, though, finding the silver lining in the latest news to come from the NLRB. The agency is proposing that all employers that are potentially covered by the National Labor Relations Act (which is virtually all private-sector employers except for agricultural, railroad, and airline employers) notify employees of their rights under that Act. According to the NLRB's press release: “[M]any employees protected by the NLRA are unaware of their rights under the statute. The intended effects of this action are to increase knowledge of the NLRA among employees, to better enable the exercise of rights under the statute, and to promote statutory compliance by employers and unions.”

The posting would be similar to that which the DOL has mandated for federal contractors. The proposed posting would state that employees have the right to act together to improve wages and working conditions, to form, join and assist a union, to bargain collectively with their employer, and to choose not to do any of these activities. It also would provide examples of unlawful employer and union conduct and instructs employees how to contact the NLRB with questions or complaints.

The NLRB is accepting public comments on this proposed rule for the next 60 days. Comments can be either submitted electronically to www.regulations.gov, or by mail or hand-delivery to Lester A. Heltzer, Executive Secretary, NLRB, 1099 14th Street NW, Washington DC 20570. I urge business

In the meantime, I will continue to try to look on the bright side.


Presented by Kohrman Jackson & Krantz, with offices in Cleveland and Columbus. For more information, contact Jon Hyman, a partner in our Labor & Employment group, at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com.