The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) recently issued a major decision in General Motors finding that “employees who engage in abusive conduct” under the guise of activity protected by federal labor law “will not receive greater protection from discipline than other employees who engage in abusive conduct.”
This ruling by the Board reversed a long line of cases that in effect had shielded employees’ racist and sexist speech from disciplinary action in instances where ostensibly uttered in connection with activities protected under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), and now gives employers more freedom, in the Board’s own words, “to take prompt and appropriate corrective action to avoid a hostile work environment on the basis of protected characteristics.”
Two other recent Board rulings deal with different issues but achieve the same purpose of restoring balance and continuing the trend, one decision dealing with an employer’s right to require confidentiality in arbitration proceedings and the other an employer’s right to impose employee discipline while negotiations with a newly certified union are ongoing but a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) has not yet been executed.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.