National Labor Relations Board Approves New Rule Affecting Most Private Sector Employers
Update as of October 4, 2011, The NLRA’s new rule was supposed to take effect on November 14, 2011, but has been postponed until January 31, 2012, and it applies to a wide variety of private sector employees, but not all.
August 25, 2011, the National Labor Relations Board approved its proposed rule requiring many private sector employers to post notices in their workplaces advising employees—even non unionized employees—of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Unlike most other federal employment laws, the NLRA currently does not require employers to advise employees of the NLRA rights. The new rule changes that, requiring covered employers to post a notice of employees’ rights, and communicate NLRA rights electronically, via email or intranet.
There is a common misconception among employers that employees who are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement have no rights under the NLRA. The bottom line is many private sector employees have been and are protected by the NLRA since it was passed. However, because there was no requirement that employers post a notice advising employees of such rights, many employers and employees alike did not realize that such rights exist.
Questions regarding the content of this column or past columns may be e-mailed to Christina Harris Schwinn at christinaschwinn@paveselaw.com. To view past columns written by Ms. Schwinn please visit the firm’s website at www.paveselaw.com. Ms. Schwinn is a partner and an experienced employment and real estate law attorney with the Pavese Law Firm, 1833 Hendry Street, Fort Myers, FL 33901; Telephone: (239) 336-6228; Telecopier: (239) 332-2243.