Operations In Fiscal Year 1988 - National Labor Relations Board

Unfair Labor Practices 125have the money deducted during the grace period restored toher. The remaining $25, on the other hand, was properly deductedbeyond the 30-day grace period during the fifth week of employment.Member Johansen noted that this partial reimbursementformula restored the status quo ante, the essential theme ofCampbell Soup.6. Liability for Discriminatory Hiring HallIn Wolf Trap Foundation,'" the Board overruled prior precedentand announced a new policy of finding employers jointlyand severally liable for a union's discriminatory operation of ahiring hall only if they know or can be reasonably charged withnotice of a union's discrimination. Previously, the Board had adheredto the principle of strict liability and held employers responsibleeven if they had no knowledge, either actual or constructive,of a union's discriminatory operation of a referralsystem." 8The union and three employers—Wolf Trap; Ford's Theatre,and National Theatre—had an arrangement whereby the union,through an exclusive hiring hall, referred stagehand employees towork. In the course of operating the hiring hall, the union, inviolation of Section 8(b)(2) of the Act, refused to refer ReginaBecker, the charging party, to employment because she was afemale nonmember of the union. Acknowledging that he wasbound by Board law that held an employer strictly liable for aunion's discriminatory acts when it delegates hiring to a union,the judge found that, as parties to the hiring hall arrangement bywhich the union discriminated against Becker, the employers violatedSection 8(a)(3) despite the lack of any evidence that theyhad actual knowledge of the discrimination.The Board affirmed the 8(a)(3) fmdings with respect to WolfTrap and Ford's Theatre. Although noting that these employershad no actual knowledge of the union's unlawful conduct, theBoard held that, when a collective-bargaining agreement itself,either on its face or by reference to another agreement or tounion rules, requires discrimination or when the discriminatoryacts are widespread or repeated or notorious, the employermight reasonably be charged with notice. Wolf Trap and Ford'sTheatre had written collective-bargaining agreements with theunion that contained unlawful "closed-shop" provisions expresslyrequiring discrimination in employment against nonmembers ofthe union. Applying its new standard, the Board concluded thatdespite the lack of actual knowledge the inclusion of the closedshopprovisions in their contracts was sufficient ground to chargeWolf Trap and Ford's Theatre with notice of the union's discriminationand to hold them jointly and severally liable with the'"287 NLRB No. 103 (Chairman Stephens and Members Johansen, Babson, and Cracraft).178 See Frank Mascali Construction, 251 NLRB 219 (1980), enfd. mem. 697 F.2d 294 (2d Cir. 1982).