Employer Must Read NLRB’s Notice Aloud to Employees

Late in 2010, the Acting General Counsel announced his intent to pursue additional remedies against employers alleged to have violated the NLRA.  The recent decision in OS Transport LLC, 358 N.L.R.B. No. 117 (Aug. 31, 2012), is a good example of the NLRB’s acceptance and enforcement of these remedial requests.

In OS Transport, the AGC alleged that the employer violated the NLRA by threatening employees engaged in union organizing activity.  The employer was also alleged to have discharged union supporters, and discriminated against union supporters in connection with work assignments.

Finding various violations of the NLRA, the NLRB affirmed some of the additional remedies that were ordered to address those violations.  For example, and consistent with the AGC’s 2010 memorandum, the ALJ ordered the employer to read the NLRB’s remedial notice aloud to the employees.  The ALJ also ordered the employer to supply the union with a list of employee names and addresses.  The NLRB found that these remedies were appropriate because:

• The employees’ protected, concerted activities were prompted by the employer’s coercing the employees into signing sham independent contractor agreements that purported to strip them of their rights as employees under the NLRA;
• The employer responded "swiftly" to the employee’s union activity through a series of escalating unfair labor practices, including threats, reduced work opportunities, and discharges; and
• The employer’s "most senior officials" were directly involved in the commission of the unfair labor practices.

For the labor professional, the decision helps better inform the circumstances under which the NLRB will enforce the additional remedies the AGC outlined in his 2010 memorandum.  It also underscores the importance, as this blog has previously recognized, of careful planning and execution of the employer’s response to a union organizing drive.