National Association of Manufacturers v. National Labor Relations Board

United States District Court for the District of Columbia · Labor Law

Labor LawAdministrative LawFirst AmendmentAgency RulemakingNational Labor Relations ActNLRANLRBnotice posting

Facts

The NLRB promulgated a final rule titled "Notification of Employee Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act." Subpart A required employers subject to the NLRA to post a government-drafted notice informing employees of their rights under the Act, including online posting in some circumstances. Subpart B provided enforcement mechanisms, including treating failure to post as an unfair labor practice, permitting tolling of the six-month limitations period in unfair labor practice cases where the notice was not posted, and allowing knowing and willful non-posting to be considered as evidence of unlawful motive. Plaintiffs challenged the Board's statutory authority, argued the rule was arbitrary and capricious, and asserted that the posting requirement compelled speech in violation of the First Amendment.

Issue

Whether the NLRA authorized the NLRB to require employers to post notices of employee rights, and whether the Board could also provide by rule that failure to post is an unfair labor practice and that non-posting may toll the six-month statute of limitations. The court also considered whether the posting requirement was arbitrary and capricious or violated the First Amendment.

Rule

Under Chevron, the Board's broad rulemaking authority under 29 U.S.C. § 156 permits rules necessary to carry out the provisions of the NLRA unless some other provision of the Act limits that authority. A general notice-posting requirement designed to inform employees of their Section 157 rights is a permissible exercise of that authority, but the Board may not by blanket rule classify all failures to post as unfair labor practices under Section 158(a)(1) or effectively alter the six-month limitations period in Section 160(b). A government-drafted and government-controlled workplace notice is government speech and does not compel private speech in violation of the First Amendment.

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One of 10 multiple-choice questions for this case. Pick an answer to see why.

The Federal Workplace Relations Board administers a statute protecting private-sector employees' rights to organize and refrain from organizing. Relying on a general provision authorizing rules "necessary to carry out the provisions" of the statute, the Board adopts a rule requiring covered employers in Phoenix to post an official government notice summarizing employee rights, but the rule imposes no automatic penalty for nonposting.

If an employer challenges the posting requirement as beyond the Board's authority because the statute does not expressly mention workplace notices, how should a court most likely rule?

Explanation. The majority treated a broad rulemaking clause as authorizing a general notice-posting rule designed to help employees know and exercise their statutory rights. Congress's silence about notices was not read as a prohibition, and the agency's authority was not confined to post-charge adjudication or election administration. The rule is valid absent some other statutory provision limiting that authority. (Derived from National Association of Manufacturers v. National Labor Relations Board (n.d.).)