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NLRB?s ruling that terminating non-union employees for having picketed its health clinic was lawful overturned

NLRB?s ruling that terminating non-union employees for having picketed its health clinic was lawful overturned
Civil Service Employees Association, Local 1000, AFSCME, v National Labor Relations Board, 569 F.3d 88

CSEA represented correctional officers at the Albany County Correctional Facility in Albany and sought to organize and represent employees working at a health clinic located in the Albany correctional facility operated by Correctional Medical Services, Inc.

CSEA filed a petition seeking judicial review of an NRLB decision and order that ruled that an employer?s termination of non-union employees for having picketed a health clinic for the purpose of seeking recognition of a union as a collective bargaining agent without providing 10-days prior notice was lawful.

The Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with the NLRB's ruling, concluding that the termination under the circumstances was not lawful. The court explained that as such picketing is a right of an employee recognized in 29 U.S.C. §157 and that §158(g), on its face, does not apply to employees in their individual capacities.

The Circuit Court decided that in view of the distinctions Congress made in §158(d) between striking and picketing, Congress intended to protect an employee from such types of discipline that might result from their participation in such picketing and also intended to protect an employee from discipline due to such participation without the notice a labor organization would otherwise be required to provide pursuant to §158(g).

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on March 16, 2010 (boomark / email).