NLRB Overturns Two Obama-Era Rulings

A newly appointed Republican majority on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has overturned two Obama-administration rulings related to joint employment and handbooks.

In a 3-2 ruling, the board overturned its 2015 decision on joint-employer liability and restored the pre-2015 standard. The NLRB said that now two or more entities will be deemed joint employers under the National Labor Relations Act if “there is proof one entity has exercised control over essential employment terms of another entity’s employees (rather than merely having the right to exercise control) and has done so directly and immediately (rather than indirectly) in a manner that is not limited and routine.”

Those ruling for the majority included chairman Philip A. Miscimarra, whose term has since expired. The language in the board’s decision resembled Miscimarra’s dissent language from the decision in 2015.

In the employee handbook case, the NLRB’s 3-2 ruling overturned a 2004 decision in which the board found employers violated the NLRA “by maintaining workplace rules that do not explicitly prohibit protected activities, were not adopted in response to such activities, and were not applied to restrict such activities, if the rules would be ‘reasonably construed’ by an employer to prohibit the exercise of NLRA rights.”

Source: Business Insurance Holdings