This labor law applies to you, too.
Most employers and Human Resources professionals know that employees have the legal right to make internal complaints about discrimination, harassment, compliance with wage-hour laws, workplace safety, and so on. Meaning that you can’t take any kind of “adverse action” against an employee because the employee engaged in these activities.
Heck, you can’t even take action against an employee because the employee filed a charge against you with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or filed a lawsuit.
But there is one more type of legally protected activity that often escapes employers’ consciousness.
Watch your step!
Protected concerted activity.
“PCA,” as the labor lawyers call it, is protected under the National Labor Relations Act. Because the NLRA is a labor law, many non-union employers think it doesn’t apply to them. Assuming they think about it at all.
That’s too bad, because that lack of knowledge is why non-union employers are likely to get nailed for violations.
A decision this week from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit -- involving a non-union company and some IT employees making close to $100,000 a year -- should make a believer out of you.
Our employee (we’ll call him “Milton”) was a software engineer for a company that was going through a restructuring. Milton’s job was safe, but his role was going to change and he was not happy about it.
He had some discussions with his...
Welcome to Reality Check, NewsGuard’s nonpartisan newsletter that tracks the false claims and conspiracy theories that shape our world — and who’s behind them. Please support us by becoming a premi...