The Labor Law Insider

NLRB Adopts Pro-Labor Remedies for Alleged Unfair Labor Practices, Part I

Episode Summary

Husch Blackwell's Labor Law Insiders, Thomas Godar, Terry Potter, Rufino Gaytan and Adam Doerr, offer context to recent NLRB memoranda, including background to NLRB remedies, and contrast the historical reach of NLRB remedies to the broader approach urged by the Board’s General Counsel under her more expansive definition of “full remedies”. Further, the panelists take on the implications of the General Counsel’s pursuit of injunctive relief under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act, as a preventative tool rather than a remedial one. The panel also addresses the non-economic remedies that more employers will find unpalatable, including those discussed in the most recent General Counsel memorandum. These include such remedies as letters of apologies to reinstated employees, and the creation of video recordings of a NLRB agent reading notices in the presence of senior charged party officials, among others. The second part of this episode will further explore the options for reviewing and potentially resolving complaints, the incentive to defend against such ULP complaints through trial, and the steps to be undertaken to avoid, as far as can be possible, the threat of employees charging employers with unfair labor practices.

Episode Notes

Husch Blackwell's Labor Law Insiders, Thomas Godar,  Terry Potter, Rufino Gaytan and Adam Doerr, offer context to recent NLRB memoranda, including background to NLRB remedies, and contrast the historical reach of NLRB remedies to the broader approach urged by the Board’s General Counsel under her more expansive definition of “full remedies”. Further, the panelists take on the implications of the General Counsel’s pursuit of injunctive relief under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act, as a preventative tool rather than a remedial one.

The panel also addresses the non-economic remedies that more employers will find unpalatable, including those discussed in the most recent General Counsel memorandum. These include such remedies as letters of apologies to reinstated employees, and the creation of video recordings of a NLRB agent reading notices in the presence of senior charged party officials, among others.

The second part of this episode will further explore the options for reviewing and potentially resolving complaints, the incentive to defend against such ULP complaints through trial, and the steps to be undertaken to avoid, as far as can be possible, the threat of employees charging employers with unfair labor practices.