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In December 2010, the National Labor Relations Board proposed a rule that would require the majority of U.S. employers to post a notice to employees informing them of their right to organize or join a union. According to the Board, it believes that many employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act are unaware of their rights under the Act, and that posting a notice would increase employee knowledge of those rights and increase the exercise of them. After receiving more than 7,000 comments to the proposed rule, today the NLRB issued the final rule that will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow, and will go into effect in 75 days. That means that come November 14, 2011, almost all private sector employers will have to post a notice, in a place where similar notices are posted in the workplace, as well as on employer internet or intranet sites (if the employer regularly communicates with employees about personnel rule or policies by such means), informing employees of their right to, among other things:
- organize a union to negotiate wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment;
- discuss wages and benefits and other terms and conditions of employment or union organizing with co-workers or a union;
- take action with one or more co-workers to improve working conditions by, among other means, raising work-related complaints directly with an employer or with a government agency, and seeking help from a union;
- strike and picket, depending on the purpose or means of the strike or the picketing; and
- choose not to do any of these activities, including joining or remaining a member of a union
The full text of approved notice language (at pages 185 to 190 of the Notice) contains other explicit statements and examples of employee rights under the NLRA. The new rule also makes it an unfair labor practice to fail to post an appropriate notice.
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