Thursday, August 12, 2021: NLRB Memo Directs Regions on Mandatory Issues to Submit to Headquarters
Seeking to further centralize, control and make uniform those labor policies of interest to her office, Jennifer A. Abruzzo (the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB’s) controversial General Counsel), issued her first memo since Vice President Harris’ tie-breaker vote, allowed her to secure the role. The 10-page memo, titled, Mandatory Submissions to Advice, lays out a plan for all Regional Directors, Officers-in-Charge, and Resident Officers on some of the priorities of the Office of the General Counsel.
“As our country fights a horrific pandemic and returns from an unprecedented economic recession, it is critical that the NLRB vigorously protect the rights of workers to freely associate and act collectively to improve their wages and working conditions,” said General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. “This memo should be seen as a road map for ways in which the Agency will better effectuate its mission and congressional mandate, including protecting the right to engage in concerted activities for mutual aid or protection and encouraging collective bargaining.”
Ms. Abruzzo divided the memo into three sections.
- The first section identifies eleven subject matter areas consisting of cases where, in the last several years, the Board overruled legal precedent;
- the second section identifies seven other initiatives and areas that the General Counsel wants to examine carefully; and
- the third section identifies other case-handling matters traditionally submitted to Advice.
The memo warns that its list of subject matter areas of interest to Ms. Abruzzo is not exhaustive and may evolve as policy issues, and additional cases arise.
Section one includes the following eleven subject matter areas:
- employer handbook rules,
- confidentiality provisions in separation agreements,
- defining the scope of protected concerted activity,
- Wright Line/General Counsel’s burden,
- remedial issues,
- union access,
- union dues,
- employee status,
- jurisdiction over religious institutions,
- employer duty to recognize or bargain, and
- deferral.
Section two lists seven additional subject areas that Ms. Abruzzo would like to examine. These include cases involving employee status, Weingarten rights, National Mediation Board vs. NLRB jurisdiction, employer duty to recognize and bargain, employees’ Section 7 right to strike or picket, remedies and compliance, and employer interference with employees’ Section 7 rights.
Finally, the memo lists various additional case-handling matters that are traditionally submitted to Advice. These include 10(j) injunctions (to temporarily enjoin alleged unfair labor practices pending court resolution of the underlying dispute), cases involving the validity of partial lockouts, and cases with complex subpoena issues.