The National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") recently announced that it would not seek Supreme Court Review of two U.S. Court of Appeals decisions invalidating the NLRB's Notice Posting Rule, which would have required most private sector employers to post a pro-union notice of employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act on their premises and websites.
The notice, available here, informs employees that they have a right to organize a union, bargain collectively and strike and picket and states that it is illegal for the employer to prohibit employees "from wearing union hats, buttons, t-shirts, and pins in the workplace" or to "[s]py on or videotape peaceful union activities and gatherings or pretend to do so." The NLRB's Notice Posting Rule provided that if an employer failed to post the notice, it would be subject to (1) a finding that it committed an unfair labor practice; (2) a tolling of statutes of limitation for charges of any other unfair labor practices; and (3) a finding of anti-union animus that would weigh against it in any proceedings before the NLRB.
While pursuant to the NLRB's recent announcement most private sector employers are now relieved from the obligation to post the NLRB's notice of rights, federal contractors and subcontractors are currently still subject to that requirement under an executive order issued by President Obama in 2009 and it's implementing regulations. Those rules, however, have been challenged in a recently-filed lawsuit, National Association of Manufacturers, et al. v. NLRB, currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
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