NLRB Partners With Justice Department To Protect Workers from Antitrust, Labor Law Violations
On Tuesday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a partnership to “better protect competitive labor markets and ensure that workers are able to freely exercise their rights under the labor laws,” according to a Justice Department press release.
Through greater coordination in information sharing, enforcement activity and training, the two agencies will maximize the enforcement of federal laws, including the labor laws under the NLRB’s jurisdiction and the antitrust laws enforced by the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, the DOJ’s release states.
The partnership appears to be in furtherance of the Biden Administration’s “whole of government approach” and comes merely a week after NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo formed a partnership with the Federal Trade Commission.
“The Department of Justice and the NLRB share an interest in promoting the free flow of commerce and fair competition in labor markets,” stated a concurrent NLRB press release, “including through protecting American workers from collusive or anticompetitive employer practices and unlawful interference with employees’ right to organize.”
“Protecting competition in labor markets is fundamental to the ability of workers to earn just rewards for their work, to live out the American dream, and to provide for their families,” stated Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
“By cooperating more closely with our colleagues in the NLRB, we can share information on potential violations of the antitrust and labor laws, collaborate on new policies and ensure that workers are protected from collusion and unlawful employer behavior,” Kanter stated.
“As the department noted in the amicus brief we submitted in the NLRB’s recent Atlanta Opera matter, we support the Board’s ongoing efforts to update its guidance to ensure that workers are properly classified under the labor laws.” Kanter noted. “Protecting the right of workers to earn a fair wage is core to the work of both our agencies, and it will continue to receive extraordinary vigilance from the Antitrust Division.”
“When businesses interfere with worker organizing, either through creating structures designed to evade labor law or through anticompetitive practices, it hinders our economy and our democracy,” stated NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. “This MOU will strengthen the federal government’s ability to effectively stop this kind of unlawful activity and, therefore, to better protect workers’ right to freely associate with one another to improve their wages and working conditions and to collectively bargain through freely chosen representatives.”
Announced intent back in February.
In a February memo [in PDF], GC Abruzzo announced she was “proceeding with efforts to establish partnerships with IRS, DOJ’s Antitrust Division, and FTC to address unfair methods of competition that undermine workers’ rights.”
“This includes,” the memo states, “coordination in order to: reduce the incidence of misclassification of employees and ensure that employers properly pay their employees and their employment taxes; create mechanisms for sharing data about acquisitions, mergers or similar employer organizational actions that may detrimentally affect organizing or bargaining efforts, such that workers are more in need of whistleblower and anti-retaliation protections; and give greater attention to non-disclosure, nonsolicitation, and non-compete agreements that harm fair competition and violate employees’ rights under Section 7 of the Act.”
[Emphasis added throughout.]