National Labor Relations To Require Employers To Post Pro-Union Notices In The Workplace

See notice below and link from the National Labor Relations Board.

Still another union bailout by the Obama Administration.

At the behest of unions who are mostly too lazy to get out and organize, employers will now have to assist. Starting November 11, 2011 every employer is now going to have to post a notice in the workplace that is, in effect, pro-union.

It may sound like much ado about nothing but it is a lot more . . . posting these notices is essentially an invitation to union organizing, an invitation to your employees to call a union anytime they are unhappy about anything. What's worse is that the notice makes it sound as if the employer is neutral.  

Recommendation: A ommunications plan should be developed to put this notice into proper context.


Notice from National Labor Relations Board

The National Labor Relations Board has issued a Final Rule that will require employers to notify employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act as of November 14, 2011. 

Private-sector employers (including labor organizations) whose workplaces fall under the National Labor Relations Act will be required to post the employee rights notice where other workplace notices are typically posted. Also, employers who customarily post notices to employees regarding personnel rules or policies on an internet or intranet site will be required to post the Board’s notice on those sites. Copies of the notice will be available from the Agency’s regional offices, and it may also be downloaded from the NLRB website. 

The notice, which is similar to one required by the U.S. Department of Labor for federal contractors, states that employees have the right to act together to improve wages and working conditions, to form, join and assist a union, to bargain collectively with their employer, and to refrain from any of these activities. It provides examples of unlawful employer and union conduct and instructs employees how to contact the NLRB with questions or complaints. 

The Board received approximately 6,500 comments during the 60-day comment period following publication of the Proposed Rule in the Federal Register, and accepted an additional 500 that arrived after the deadline. In response to the comments, some parts of the rule were modified. For example, employers will not be required to distribute the notice via email, voice mail, text messaging or related electronic communications even if they customarily communicate with their employees in that manner, and they may post notices in black and white as well as in color. The final rule also clarifies requirements for posting in foreign languages. Similar postings of workplace rights are required under other federal workplace laws. 

Board Chairman Wilma B. Liebman and Members Mark Gaston Pearce and Craig Becker approved the final rule, with Member Brian Hayes dissenting. 

The rule will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow, and will take effect 75 days later. A fact sheet with further information about the rule is available.