Employment Law Report

Federal Judge Issues Ruling on NLRB’s Rule Requiring Notice Posting

By Edwin S. Hopson

In National Association of Manufacturers v. National Labor Relations Board, et al., Civil No. 11-1629 (ABJ), U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an appointee of President Obama’s, issued her decision on March 2, 2012, granting in part and denying in part the plaintiff association’s request to block the NLRB’s new notice posting rule which is to go into effect April 30, 2012. JudgeJackson ruled that the NLRB did not exceed its authority under the National Labor Relations Act by requiring all employers subject to the Act to post a notice advising employees of their rights under the Act.  However, she also ruled that the portion of the rule which would deem an employer’s failure to post the NLRB notice to be an unfair labor practice, and the provision that tolls the statute of limitations in the case of unfair labor practice charges where the employer failed to post the notice, do in fact violate the Act and are therefore invalid as a matter of law.

The district judge declined to take up a challenge to the recess appointments by President Obama to the NLRB that occurred after the Board’s issuance of the notice-posting regulation in question.

The full text of the ruling may be found at:

https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2011cv1629-59