TY - JOUR T1 - The NLRB as an Überagency for the Evolving Workplace JF - Emory Law Journal Y1 - 2015 A1 - Green, Michael Z. KW - discrimination KW - labor KW - National Labor Relations Act KW - National Labor Relations Board KW - NLRB KW - workers’ rights KW - workplace KW - workplace disputes AB -

In addressing legal issues regarding the relationships between employers and employees, one must navigate a complex maze of rights and remedies that govern the workplace. This essay details several recent and important workplace disputes addressed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) pursuant to Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Section 7 protects a worker’s right to pursue an activity for mutual aid or protection regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. The NLRB, a unique agency with its ultimate decisions determined by five members who primarily establish rules through adjudication rather than rulemaking, has been asked to offer an initial answer to many pressing workplace questions arising from technological and legal advances.Some of the critical issues that have been or will be addressed by the NLRB include employee use of social media, use of electronic mail communications, immigrant workers’ rights and remedies, enforcement of class arbitration waivers in collective wage and hour claims, organizing of college football players, protected worker speech versus employer rights and obligations to limit certain speech, the scope of coverage under joint employer/independent contractor arrangements, and the intersection of labor law with anti-discrimination law concerns in the workplace. The NLRB is encountering these matters at a unique time concerning the number of NLRB members appointed by the President with advice-and-consent approval by the Senate. While in the midst of considering the ramifications of a pending Supreme Court decision regarding challenges to the scope of the President’s recess appointment of certain NLRB members, the President and the Senate agreed in August 2013 to a political compromise allowing the NLRB to operate with all five members approved and in place for the first time in ten years. A full complement of NLRB members remains in place throughout 2015 and at the dawn of the NLRB’s eightieth anniversary. As a result of having this full complement of NLRB members, this Essay asserts that the NLRB has become the premier administrative agency for addressing workplace matters across a broad spectrum of employee-employer concerns. In this respect, the NLRB represents a super — or über — agency in pointing a spotlight on important workplace issues that no other administrative agency could or should address. With the five appointed members’ outstanding expertise in labor law as well as in broader workplace concerns under employment discrimination and employment law, these NLRB decision-makers offer an unusual level of knowledge to operate on the front line in adjudicating perplexing issues that continue to evolve in the workplace.

VL - 64 L2 - eng UR - http://ssrn.com/abstract=2580786 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Unusual Unanimity and the Ongoing Debate on the Meaning of Words: The Labor and Employment Decisions from the Supreme Court's 2013-14 Term JF - ABA Journal of Labor and Employment Law Y1 - 2015 A1 - Green, Michael Z. KW - benefits KW - discimination KW - employment KW - labor KW - Supreme Court KW - wages KW - whistleblower AB -

During its 2013-14 term, the Supreme Court focused on labor relations, wage and hour law, whistleblowing, and employee benefits in several cases. The Court also addressed constitutional issues concerning the First Amendment, the Recess Appointments Clause, and affirmative action. The Court did not decide any employment discrimination cases during the term. Even without employment discrimination cases, the 2013-2014 term provided ten key cases of importance to labor and employment lawyers. Three of these cases involved distinctly different matters of concern for organized labor. Two cases addressed employee whistleblowing matters. Three cases focused on employee benefits. Two cases addressed issues tangentially-related to employment law. One case involved affirmative action. Another case addressed taxation of severance payments.In assessing the past term, one has to note the remarkable number of unanimous rulings. On the other hand, many of those "unanimous" decisions arose from general agreement on a limited result with blistering opinions questioning the majority's rationale. At one point, commentators even referred to the unanimity of the Supreme Court this past term as "specious" or "faux-nanimity." To explore the common theme of false unanimity, this Article reviews both the unanimous components of the decisions as well as the Justices’ existing divisions, especially over different approaches to interpreting the meaning of words. Finally, the Article identifies the significance of the Supreme Court’s 2013-14 labor and employment decisions and forecasts similar issues likely in store for the Court in the near future.

VL - 2 L2 - eng UR - http://ssrn.com/abstract=2580720 ER -