Concerted Activity Or Insubordination?

With its recent decision in Central States SE and SW Areas, Health & Welfare and Pension Funds, 362 N.L.R.B. No. 155, 203 LRRM 2082 (August 4, 2015), the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB" or "Board") has provided another example of the importance it places on employee's Section 7 right to participate in concerted activities relative to an employer's need to promote professional, adult-like decorum in the workplace. Under the circumstances of the case, it seems the Board both stretched the meaning of concerted activity and ignored the employer and administrative law judge's commonsense interpretation of the employee's actions.

In the case, the NLRB reversed the decision of an ALJ that had held an employer had not committed an unfair labor practice when it ordered an employee to remove a laminated posting of a written disciplinary warning the employee had placed at his workstation. As the Board saw it, the employer had violated the employee's right to engage in