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Practices Prohibited by the NLRA

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We are in the midst of an employee picket. We would like to know what some of the unfair labor practices that the NLRA prohibits are.

The NLRA that you are referring to is an acronym that stands for a federal Act called the National Labor Relations Act. This Act applies to employers that make more than $50,000 or, if they are a retailer, their gross sales should equal more than $500,000. According to this Act, your employees do have the right to form a collective labor organization in order to bargain with you for better hours, better pay, better working conditions or better treatment in general.

As an employer, you must not intimidate, threaten, discriminate, or retaliate against employees that participate in the picket that your employees have staged.

Those employees that are picketing are legally allowed to do the following, according to the NLRA: engage in work stoppages, honor the picket line, file complaints against your company or persons within your company, protest, appeal to government agencies, and file court actions against the company. However, they are not allowed to have a sit-down strike, share confidential company information, or make false accusations.

Keep in mind that as an employer, you must not refuse to bargain with a labor organization, as long as that labor organization has been declared a certified representative of your collective employees that wish to engage in bargaining with the company. You must deal with the organization in this case and may not circumvent it in order to negotiate directly with the employees.

You may also not discriminate against employees that are taking part in the activity of the union. For example, you cannot base any hiring decisions, promotional decisions or decisions regarding benefits and bonuses on whether or not an employee has engaged in activity that is protected by the NLRA.

Also, as employer, you may not interfere or dominate the labor organizations. For example, if there is a clash between an outside union and your employees, you may not create a company union or give away the names of employees to an organization that you prefer.