The General Counsel (GC) of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently made public an internal “Advice Memorandum” that provides a useful reminder as to how the NLRB views wage discussions among employees in the context of protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
Advice Memos are issued by the General Counsel’s office in response to requests by the agency’s field staff for enforcement guidance on cases currently pending in their regional offices. The memos help ensure consistent application of the law and can be valuable tools in understanding the rationale behind the Board’s enforcement stance.
In this case, the Advice Memo in Gallup, Inc. determined that an employer violated the NLRA when it terminated an employee for discussing wage issues with coworkers, even though the discussions never amounted to any group action taking place, and serves as a reminder that wage discussions are considered to be protected concerted activity under the NLRA.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.