Employers Win: The NLRB Gives Up Fight for Controversial Workplace Posters

On January 6, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) announced that it would not petition the U.S. Supreme Court to review two appeals court decisions striking down its rule requiring private sector businesses to hang posters advising employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). The decision not to challenge either appeals court rulings essentially means that the so-called “poster rule” will not go into effect.

As you may recall, in approximately May 2011, the NLRB promulgated a controversial Notice Posting Rule, which would have required most private sector employers to post a notice of employee rights in the workplace. Frequent readers of Foley’s Legal News: Employment Law Updates will also recall that in May 2013, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down the poster rule. In June 2014, the Fourth Circuit also ruled against the NLRB, sustaining the second challenge to the poster rule in a case brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and South Carolina Chamber of Commerce.

In its announcement, the NLRB affirmed its commitment to its outreach program to educate employees of their rights under the NLRA. The NLRB also noted that the poster is available on its website for anyone to access voluntarily.

Please note that this alert does not pertain to the related rule issued by the Department of Labor that federal contractors and subcontractors provide notice to employees of their rights under the NLRA as a term of receiving a federal contract. This rule is presently being challenged in a pending lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.