A little known provision in the National Labor Relations Act provides protection to employees when they discuss “terms and conditions” of employment. The discussion must be between two or more employees. The purpose of this provision (remember, the NLRA was passed in 1935) was to protect employees who may be forming a union. But, for
National labor Relations Board
Employee Fired After COVID19 Protest
These are trying times, by any standard. This veteran of Iraq is starting to have war flash backs. If your employer is not taking precautions for the coronavirus, can you as an employee do anything about it? Yes, any worker can discuss with another worker any “term and condition” of the job. That protection comes…
My Cousin Vinny Cross Examination
My Cousin Vinny was a wonderful movie in many respects. One of those respects involves the cross examination by Vinny of a so-called eye witness. After close questioning, the “eye witness” admitted he had made eggs and grits while the two defendants were supposedly robbing a small, rural store. As Vinny explained, the witness could…
McDonald’s Settles with Franchise Workers
I wrote about this McDonald’s lawsuit a couple of years ago. See my prior post here. The lawsuit represented a new approach to franchisees. For years, even decades, persons suing franchisees could not also sue the parent company. A person could sue the local McDonald’s, but not the parent company. The theory was that…
Fifth Circuit Rejects Prohibition on Recordings
T-Mobile has work rules including: 1) Maintain a positive work environment, 2) No arguing or fighting; respect co-workers, 3) no photography, or video or audio recording, and 4) no access to electronic information by non-approved persons. The National Labor Relations Board found these four rules to violate the National Labor Relations Act. The NLRA allows…
Chicken Little and the Browning-Ferris Decision
Sometimes, the San Antonio Express-News just does not get the story straight. In a story, entitled “Franchisees Fear a Chain of Ruin,” the report suggests the NLRB has made drastic changes to the law regarding joint employers. See San Antonio Express-News report. The NLRB has done nothing like that. See my prior post about…
McDonald’s Case is Test for New Joint Employer Standard
McDonald’s hamburger chain is facing the first test of a new approach to franchise workers. The new approach started with a NLRB decision last Summer that found in certain cases, the parent franchisor could be responsible for employment decisions made by the franchisee. See my comment about that decision here.
The McDonald’s case started…
New Standard for Joint Employers
In a recent ruling, the National Labor Relations Board has adopted a new standard regarding joint employers. Joint employers is a relatively new creation in the area of labor and employment law. Joint employers, as the name suggests, refers to separate employers both being employers of the same employee. Many years ago, I worked on…
NLRB Does not Allow College Football Players to Organize Unions
Well, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has reversed the regional director in Chicago who had ruled that Northwestern University football players could form a union. The ruling from the national level found, instead that allowing union organizing could lead to imbalances in competitive football. See CBS news report. The ruling did not address…
Northwestern Players Will Vote on Union
photo courtesy of tom213
The Northwestern football players will now cast their votes for or against forming a union. I wrote about this union movement previously here. Only scholarship players may vote. The school has already appealed the NLRB’s decision that the football players are employees and may form a union. The appeal will be…