NLRB Issues Significant Decisions At Year's End

As the term of Member Brian Hayes expired at the end of 2012, the National Labor Relations Board issued a flurry of recent decisions. The decisions highlight the Board's continuing foray into the non-union workplace through increasingly broad interpretations of protected concerted activity; grant a new right to unions to receive pre-arbitration witness statements and the right to bargain over pre-imposition of suspension, demotion, or termination during first contact negotiations; and continue to strike down arbitration agreements in the non-union setting.

Obligation to Bargain Over Pre-Imposition of Discipline

Alan Ritchey, Inc., 359 NLRB No. 40 (December 14, 2012). The Board found that after the union has been selected as the employees' bargaining representative, but before the first contract has been agreed to, the employer must bargain over discretionary discipline before it is imposed. Such discretionary discipline is a mandatory subject of bargaining, and a