The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) recently set forth what appears to be a burden-shifting legal standard for determining whether an employer’s handbooks, policies or rules violate the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). All employers should be mindful of this legal standard, whether an employer’s workforce is unionized or not, because the NLRA protects most employees irrespective of union membership.1
Overview of Employee Rights under the NLRA
The NLRA protects employees when engaging in certain concerted activities, such as when two or more employees act together to improve the terms and conditions of their employment. Specifically, Section 7 of the NLRA guarantees employees “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,” as well as the right “to refrain from any or all such activities.” Under Section 8(a)(1), it is an unfair labor practice for employers “to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7” of the NLRA.
During the past several months, the NLRB has issued several employee-friendly decisions and memorandums.2 Most recently, in Stericycle, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 113 (2023), the NLRB determined that an employer’s facially neutral workplace rules, or rules that do not expressly...
A Delhi court has acquitted SKS Ispat and Power Ltd and four others, including the brother of former Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay, in a case related to alleged irregularities in the allocation...