The NLRA Applies to Non-Union Businesses

Many people equate “labor” with unions, and they assume that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) do not apply to a non-union enterprise. But in fact the NLRA protects the rights of employees, union or non-union, in businesses whose operations “affect commerce.” That encompasses most employers.

The protected rights include the right to engage in “concerted” activities that address conditions of employment. In actual practice, according to the authors, employers are most likely to interfere with concerted activity in three situations.

The first involves confidentiality policies that could be interpreted as interfering with the employees’ right to discuss their wages or other terms of employment with their fellow employees. The second is when union organizing activity begins.

The third is when social media policies are introduced or enforced. Social media activity that relates in any way to terms and conditions of work may be protected.

A new NLRB rule (on hold as this article went to press) would require most private-sector employers to post a notice informing their employees of their NLRA rights, which include the right to organize or join a union, bargain collectively, discuss wages and benefits with co-workers, or to choose not to do any of those activities. In some work settings the notice would need to be posted on the internet and/or in the language most employees speak if that language is not English.