Comment provided by: Jade West, NAW Senior Vice President-Government Relations
As you all know, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has recently issued a final rule requiring all businesses covered by the National Labor Relations Act to post a "Notice of Employee Rights under the National Labor Relations Act" in their workplace, with a posting deadline of November 14th. At least three complaints have been filed in court challenging the rule - two in the District of Columbia and one in South Carolina. NAW joined the complaint filed by the National Association of Manufacturers and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace.
The organizations challenging the new rule filed motions with the court asking that the judge issue a preliminary injunction preventing the Board from implementing the posting requirement while the cases are pending. At a conference in court on Monday of this week, the judge suggested to the Board that they extend the posting deadline so that she would not need to rule on the preliminary injunction motions, and the parties could move directly to motions for summary judgment.
In a conference call with the judge and attorneys on October 5, the NLRB announced that they have postponed the deadline for the Notice posting to January 31, 2012. In their public announcement of the postponement, the Board said they extended the deadline to "allow for enhanced education and outreach to employers, particularly those who operate small and medium sized businesses." It is pretty clear that they in fact postponed the deadline in response to the judge's suggestion and to avoid her granting a preliminary injunction. Whatever their reason, we welcome the postponement so that the legal challenges to the rule have time to move through the courts before anyone has to post a notice.
The attorneys will now prepare briefs on their motions for summary judgment, and are working out a briefing schedule. We will keep you updated as the challenges move forward.