NLRB Issues Three Important Decisions Overturning Existing Law

On August 26, 2011, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued three important decisions changing existing law in important ways. The NLRB made these decisions public last week.

In the most wide reaching decision of the three, the NLRB's ruling in Specialty Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center of Mobile overturned a 20-year old standard for determining appropriate bargaining units in non-acute healthcare facilities. In the process, the Board also changed the NLRB standard for determining appropriate bargaining units outside the healthcare industry. The other two decisions returned to standards that had been changed during the Bush Administration:

• Lamons Gasket Co. reinstated the "recognition bar," which limits challenges to a union's status as a bargaining unit's representative for a reasonable period of time after an employer voluntarily recognizes a union.