National Labor Relations Board Changes Settlement Landscape

Time to Revamp Your Employee Severance and Release Agreements!

On February 21, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") issued a decision that greatly alters the landscape relating to settlement agreements between Employers and Employees. In McLaren Macomb and Local 40 RN Staff Council, Office and Professional Employees, International Union (OPEIU), AFL-CIO, Case 07-CA-26304, the NLRB ruled that two common terms of virtually all private settlement agreements between employers and employees violate the National Labor Relations Act (the "Act"). Specifically, the NLRB ruled that confidentiality and non-disparagement terms of a settlement agreement between McLaren Macomb Hospital and 11 of its former employees violated Section 8(a)(1) of the Act which makes it an unfair labor practice for an employer "to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7" of the Act. Section 7 of the Act guarantees employees