AEIS Interview with Al Vreeland

SB: This is Steve Bruce for the HR Daily Advisor. Today we’re talking to Albert Vreeland, shareholder in Lehr Middlebrooks & Vreeland P.C., in Birmingham, Alabama. Albert, could you talk to us a little bit about the new NLRB poster requirements?

AB: The Board has issued a final regulation requiring all employers, not just unionized employers but all employers, to post a notice of employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act. It was originally supposed to go into effect November 14th. It’s been delayed until January 31st, but we still expect it to go into effect.

Not only does it describe employee’s rights to organize a union, but also that an employee is protected from retaliation for concerted activity. It’s significant to non-union employers because even if you don’t have a union, two employees getting together whether at the water cooler or on Facebook to complain about something in the workplace, whether it’s about a supervisor they don’t like or their pay or really anything work related is protected. That’s considered concerted activity and you can’t retaliate against an employee for that.

I think it’s going to be very significant, because the NLRB is taking a very aggressive approach toward protecting the rights of non-union employees who engage in concerted activity, for instance, there has been a lot of activity over the use of social media. Employees who use Facebook, for instance, as a forum to talk about a supervisor they don’t like or some action the employer has taken that they disagree with, and when they get online and complain about that, if they’re later disciplined or terminated, the Board’s been very aggressive about bringing unfair labor practices charges.

SB: Thanks very much, Albert. This is Steve Bruce for the HR Daily Advisor.