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Judge upholds NLRB notice posting rule, but not penalties for failure to post
March 02, 2012 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo
National Association of Manufacturers v. NLRB (D. Dist of Columbia 03/02/2012)
The National Association of Manufacturers and National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation sued to enjoin enforcement of the NLRB's new rule (taking effect April 30) requiring all employers subject to the NLRA to post notices to employees, in conspicuous places, informing them of their NLRA rights, together with Board contact information and information concerning basic enforcement procedures.
The court held that
"the NLRA granted the Board broad rulemaking authority to implement the provisions of the Act, and that the Board did not exceed its statutory authority in promulgating Subpart A of the challenged rule - the notice posting provision. But it also holds that the provision of Subpart B that deems a failure to post to be an unfair labor practice, and the provision that tolls the statute of limitations in unfair labor practice actions against employers who have failed to post, do violate the NLRA and are invalid as a matter of law."
As part of the same case - National Association of Manufacturers v. NLRB (D. Dist of Columbia 03/02/2012) - The US District Court for the District of Columbia declined to allow plaintiffs to "shoehorn a challenge to the President's recent recess appointments into" the case challenging the NLRB's notice posting rule.
The court said:
"the rule was promulgated by a quorum of undisputedly duly authorized members well before the recess appointments were announced, and it is set to go into effect automatically on April 30." "The Court declines this invitation to take up a political dispute that is not before it."
OK, no surprises here.
