NLRB Continues Its Transformation

Depending on one's perspective, in recent years the NLRB has either blazed a radical path in favor of unions and individual concerted activity or it is returning to its original role under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Whichever way you look at the Board's recent decisions, it certainly has been busy in changing the ground rules that govern the conduct of employers, unions, and employees in the private workplace sector. Among other topics, we have recently reported on the NLRB's evolving positions on the protected nature of social media, the use of class action waivers and even whether an at-will statement in an employee handbook is legal. Now the NLRB has issued a significant decision that reverses 50 years of its own precedent.