Theater of the Absurd

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Theater of the Absurd I. INTRODUCTION When Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or the Act) in 1935 to promote stability in labor relations, it created a quasijudicial agency, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or the Board), and charged it with implementing the law. In subsequent decades, the NLRB functioned reasonably well with appointees from both political parties. Notwithstanding policy differences arising from different ideological perspectives, the NLRB served as the rational arbiter Congress seemed to have in mind. Indeed, many NLRB precedents have stood for years, if not decades, because of the Board’s efforts to balance the rights of employers, unions, and workers alike. Unfortunately, in recent years the NLRB has changed. Rather than serving as an impartial referee, it has become dominated by a decidedly pro-union majority. These activist Board members have disregarded the overarching objectives of the NLRA and disrupted the careful balance that the Board has traditionally sought. Instead, this majority, along with the Board’s appointed General Counsel, have pursued a one-sided agenda at the expense of employers and workers. One particular way the NLRB’s majority has transformed the agency is through adopting a wildly expansive reading of the NLRA’s protections in — 3 —
The NLRB Takes on the Employee Handbook order to undermine sensible and widespread workplace policies. Through a series of decisions and official guidance, the NLRB has undertaken a campaign to outlaw heretofore uncontroversial rules found in employee handbooks and in employers’ social media policies—rules that employers maintain for a variety of legitimate business reasons. This study highlights several decisions in which the NLRB has found Through a series of commonsense employee handbook policies decisions and official to be in violation of the law. While it is guidance, the NLRB has not meant to be a comprehensive review undertaken a campaign of NLRB cases in this area of labor law, it to outlaw heretofore offers a number of examples to illustrate uncontroversial rules how many of the Board’s decisions of found in employee late seem to run counter to any balanced handbooks and in reading of the NLRA and to simply fly in employers’ social media the face of common sense. In so doing, the policies—rules that report is intended to educate the business employers maintain for community, the media, and the broader a variety of legitimate public about the sweeping impact of the business reasons. NLRB’s increasingly biased, and some would say irrational, policy agenda. — 4 —
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Theater of the Absurd

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