Hopefully you’re not getting tired of me railing against the National Labor Relations Board for its parade of opinions designed to undermine the rights of employers to regulate the workplace. As long as the NLRB keeps pumping out these opinions under the generic umbrella of “protected concerted activity,” I feel a moral obligation to continue writing about them.
The latest victim is Fresenius USA Manufacturing [pdf], which concluded that an employer cannot discipline or terminate employees who make vulgar, offensive, or threatening statements.
In this case, an open and active supporter of the union, employee Kevin Grosso, anonymously scribbled vulgar, offensive, and threatening statements on several union newsletters left in an employee breakroom. The anonymous notes included “Dear Pussies, Please Read!” and “Warehouse workers, RIP.” No one disputed that Grosso was attempting to encourage his fellow employees to support the union in an upcoming decertification election.
In a good-faith response to female employees’ complaints about those statements, Fresenius investigated the statements. The investigation included questioning Grosso, during which he lied about writing the statements. Upon confirming Grosso’s authorship, the company suspended and discharged him for making the statements and lying about writing them.
The NLRB concluded that the employer was within its rights to investigate the statements and question Grosso, but could not suspend or discharge him as a result.
[A]lthough we find that Fresenius did not violate the Act by investigating and questioning Grosso, we find … that Fresenius did violate the Act by suspending and discharging him…. Grosso’s handwritten comments encouraged warehouse employees to support the Union in the decertification election. We therefore conclude that, in writing them, Grosso was engaged in protected union activity…. Fresenius discharged Grosso for writing those comments.
You might be thinking to yourself, why can’t we circumvent all this nonsense with a simple conclusion that the employer was within its rights to terminate Grosso for his dishonesty? Well, the NLRB has an answer to that question, too … and you’re not going to like it either:
Fresenius’ discharge letter to Grosso also cited his false denial of responsibility for the comments, but Fresenius could not lawfully discipline him on that ground…. Fresenius’ questioning of Grosso put him in the position of having to reveal his protected activity, which Board precedent holds an employee may not be required to do where, as here, the inquiry is unrelated to the employee’s job performance or the employer’s ability to operate its business…. As a result, although Fresenius had a legitimate interest in questioning Grosso and lawfully did so, Grosso had a Sec. 7 right not to respond truthfully.
Do you read that quote the same way I do? Did the NLRB really say that investigating complaints of harassment, consistent with an employer’s obligations under Title VII, is “unrelated to the employee’s job performance or the employer’s ability to operate its business.”
Perhaps the dissenting opinion put it best:
Notwithstanding their disavowals, my colleagues thereby impermissibly fetter the ability of employers to comply with the requirements of other labor laws and to maintain civility and order in their workplace by maintaining and enforcing rules nondiscriminatorily prohibiting abusive and profane language, sexual harassment, and verbal, mental, and physical abuse.
The business community needs to pay careful attention to cases such as Fresenius USA Manufacturing. The NLRB continues to dangerously regulate employers rights to control and remedy workplace misconduct, all in the name of “protected concerted activity.” Forcing employers into a Hobson’s Choice between the NLRA and Title VII is just plain silly. If the NLRB continues its path, employers will be left with little recourse against misbehaving employees, and at-will employment may become an historical relic.
