NLRB To Conduct Captive Audience Meetings? An NLRB Agent Will 'Train' A Company's Employees As Part Of ULP Settlement
NLRB To Conduct Captive Audience Meetings? An NLRB Agent Will 'Train' A Company's Employees As Part Of ULP Settlement
What happens if employee refuse to attend?
A National Labor Relations Board agent will provide a training session to a company’s employees about the National Labor Relations Act under a NLRB settlement, according to a NLRB press release issued earlier this week.
According to the release, Dearborn Speech and Sensory Center acted unlawfully by discharging an employee “because she engaged in protected concerted activities by protesting terms and conditions of employment in order to discourage other employees from engaging in such conduct.”
To settle the ensuing NLRB complaint, the employer agreed to:
Pay $67,335 in backpay, frontpay, and consequential damages to a former employee;
Expunge any reference to her unlawful discharge in her employment record and provide her with neutral job references;
Post and email a remedial notice to employees;
Provide a training session about employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act for its managers and supervisors to be conducted by an agent of the NLRB; and,
Provide a training session to its employees about the National Labor Relations Act, to be conducted by an agent of the NLRB. [Emphasis added.]
Will the employee training be voluntary?
Although the unusual settlement does not indicate whether the meeting will be mandatory or voluntary for the employees, it is reasonable to assume that attendance for the NLRB’s “training session” will be required—making it a so-called “captive audience” meeting.
The fact that a NLRB settlement may require attendance at a meeting conducted by an agent by the National Labor Relations Board seems contrary to the NLRB General Counsel’s position that such meetings should be "voluntary,” however.
Read the NLRB press release here.
