Labor Employment Law Blog

By James Hays and Rebecca Hirschklau

While many have been enjoying well deserved summer vacations, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has been busy. In the past two weeks the NLRB has issued decisions regarding investigative confidentiality directives and the permissible scope of the well-recognized “at-will” statement.

By James Hays and Rebecca Hirschklau, with assistance from Summer Associate Molly Masenga

Last week, in an effort to increase its presence and exposure in the workplace, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) launched a new webpage to define and provide specific examples of what it considers “concerted activity.” As you may be aware, the National Labor Relations Act’s (“NLRA”) Section 7 provides that “[e]mployees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, and shall also have the right to refrain from any or all such activities.”

On June 17, 2010, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in the case of New Process Steel v. National Labor Relations Board. At the time the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") decided this case, the Board had only two members. The Board had historically been compromised of five members. However, near the end of 2007, there were four members, and they delegated their powers to three members. Then, on December 31, 2007, one of the Board member's term expired, obviously leaving only two members. Over the next 27 months, those two remaining Board members issued more than 500 decisions.

Executive Order 13496 requires federal contractors and subcontractors to inform employees of their rights under federal labor laws. The Executive Order was signed at the end of 2009 and the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a final regulation implementing the Executive Order on May 20, 2010. The regulation went into effect on June 21, 2010.