Have you started thinking about your New Year’s resolutions for 2018?
The NLRB’s newly minted general counsel, Peter Robb, has, and employers will be very happy.
According to NLRB General Counsel Memo 18-02 [pdf], issued December 1, Robb will be examining all NLRB precedents changed during President Obama’s administration.
The memo specifically directs regional board officials to consult Robb’s office on all cases involving precedent established on workers’ rights in “the last eight years,” and any others involving “significant legal issues.”
He also rescinded seven agency guidance memos that were issued by his Democratic-appointed predecessors (most significantly including the rescission of the NLRB’s controversial 2015 memo on employee handbook policies).
- Precedent that exposes businesses to “joint employer” liability for workplaces they do not control and workers they do not employ.
- Prohibitions on class action waivers in employment arbitration agreements, which are intended to speed the resolution of workplace disputes and discourage costly class action litigation.
- The erosion of confidential of workplace investigations.
- The provision of workplace “ambush” elections over whether to form a union in as few as 10 days
- Expanded picketing rights at the expense of employers’ private property rights
- The opening of employer-owned email systems to union organizing activities
- The authorization of small groups of employees—or “micro unions”—to organize
- The restriction of unions and employers from voluntarily agreeing to resolve unforeseen bargaining issues via “management rights” clauses
