SEPTEMBER 2015

LABOR LAW NEWS
Torres Law Group, PLLC is a leading political law firm in Arizona with a portfolio of legal services that includes political, labor and employment law. The firm provides legal advice on the formation and operation of political action committees, campaign finance issues and compliance with Department of Labor regulations on union elections, including improper use of social media. It also represents employees who have been wrongly terminated, especially those cover by whistleblower protections. Learn More

Dues Check Offs Do Not Automatically Expire When CBA Expires
  
  
Pursuant to a Ninth Circuit Court ruling, the Board decided that Hacienda Hotel Inc. Gaming Corp. violated NLRA Section 8(a)(5) and (1) when it unilaterally stopped processing dues check offs after the termination of the CBA.  The NLRB agreed with the Ninth Circuit that bargaining to impasse was required prior to stopping dues checkoff after the CBA had expired under the circumstances.  Typically, the Board would order a reimbursement of any dues the violating party failed to check off.  Here, the remedies were limited to a cease and desist order, requirement to bargain before making unilateral changes, restoration of the dues check off, and a remedial notice posting due the length of litigation on the matter. 

Discussing Break Policies Protected Activity; Overly-broad Employee Handbooks Violate NLRA
 
The NRLB found EMV Payment Systems to be in violation of Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA when management threatened employees with discharge for engaging in protected concerted activities, issued an unlawful directive from prohibiting employees from engaging in protected activity, and fired an employee because she sought to discuss the employers break policies with the employer. The Board also found the confidentiality and internet usage portions of EMV's employee handbook to be overly broad and vague also in violation of the NLRA. The Board ordered the fired employee reinstated with backpay, issued a cease and desist order on prohibiting protected concerted activities of its employees, on the use of its overbroad handbook, and mandated a notice of these rights and remedies be posted in the employer's office.  

Voluntary Acceptance of Union Representation Begins on Date of Unequivocal Acceptance

 
An administrative law judge held that a contract prevented a new election from being held on a petition for election by IUOE Local 150 seeking to represent the same 10 workers in a bargaining unit at Marciano Underground Construction, LLC.  The judge found that IBEW Local 9 was the recognized 9(a) representative of the bargaining unit after IBEW Local 9 unequivocally demanded recognition as the Section 9(a) representative and after the employer voluntarily and unequivocally accepted the recognition on May 12, 2014, as evidenced by an agreement in writing.  Neither IUOE nor any other party challenged the valid recognition within the six-month timeframe required under law. The petition for election was dismissed.   

Security Instructor Employees at Nuclear Power Plant are Guards Under NLRA
 
 
An NLRB administrative law judge dismissed an election petition from IBEW Local 225 to represent a unit of Security Instructor employees at Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation's nuclear power plant in Burlington, Kansas.  The administrative law found the security instructors to be guards under the NLRA because they are an integral link in the overall process of security employer's property, because they train guards to perform their duties, and they protect the guard themselves. The judge reasoned that because IBEW Local 225 already represented units of non-guard employees at the facility, it could not represent the guards at the facility under NLRA Section 9(b)(3).  
 

Our Legal Team

Israel G. Torres

James E. Barton II

Saman J. Golestan
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