By a 2-to-1 vote along party lines, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) yesterday passed a "Chairman's Resolution" that consolidates many of the administrative and legal wranglings that typically occur leading up to a vote on union organizing at a worksite.
The six amendments in the resolution are "all aimed at reducing unnecessary litigation in election cases before the board," according to the NLRB's Web explanation.
The resolution must still be formalized into a final rule, and the final rule must then be passed by a majority of the board's members. Since the board is down to three members with one member's commission expiring on Dec. 31, the rule obviously must be rushed through to survive the Supreme Court's ruling that a two-member board cannot issue binding regulations.
What is more significant, however, are the provisions envisioned by the board's majority that failed to make it into the Chairman's Resolution.
According to the NLRB site:
The Chairman’s resolution includes only six procedural changes, leaving the vast majority of the proposed amendments for continued consideration by the Board. Among the many proposed amendments not included in the Chairman’s proposal are the electronic filing of petitions, the requirement that hearings be set for 7 days after service of the notice of hearing, the requirement of a statement of position filing, inclusion of email addresses and phone numbers in the voter list, and the change of the period for filing the voter list from 7 to 2 work days.
To better understand the principles of workplace and collective bargaining rights with which the NLRB deals, a good place to start is with Personnel Concepts' National Labor Relations Act Compliance Kit. Get yours today.