On September 18, 2020, the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) General Counsel (GC) issued a memorandum providing broad guidance reminding employers of their obligations under the National Labor Relations Act (Act), emphasizing that the conditions created by the COVID-19 Pandemic may not be used to override an employer’s legal obligations. In a detailed memorandum explaining his rational for issuing or refusing to issue a complaint in numerous cases, the GC stressed the need for employers to bargain over changes seemingly mandated by government orders, warned employers that he would examine such changes to determine whether the employer had seized on the pandemic to otherwise hide anti-union motives, and reminded employers of the longstanding requirements to provide requested information and include a union-representative during investigatory interviews (Weingarten rights). The GC’s memorandum provides timely and useful reminders of the scope of the Act.
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