Employee and Labor Relations
The statutory frame
Private-sector labor relations run on the National Labor Relations Act. Section 7 protects concerted activity - employees acting together about wages, hours, and working conditions, whether or not a union exists. Section 8(a) lists employer unfair labor practices: interfering with Section 7 rights, dominating a labor organization, discriminating because of union activity, and refusing to bargain in good faith or to furnish relevant information.
Organizing: a union typically needs at least a 30% showing of interest to petition for an NLRB election and a simple majority of those voting to certify. Employers may campaign on facts and opinions but cannot threaten, interrogate, promise benefits, or surveil (the TIPS mnemonic).
Bargaining subjects are mandatory (wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment), permissive, or illegal (closed shop, discriminatory clauses). Good faith bargaining requires meeting, exchanging proposals, and explaining positions; it does not require conceding. Grievances normally move through steps to binding arbitration, where the arbitrator interprets the contract rather than rewriting it.
Non-union employers still need employee relations discipline: progressive discipline, just cause, and documentation. Just cause typically requires notice of the rule, a reasonable rule, a fair investigation, consistent enforcement, and a proportionate penalty - captured by the hot-stove rule (immediate, consistent, impartial).
Worked example
An employee falsifies a timecard. Before terminating, verify the rule was published, applied consistently to others, and that the investigation included the employee's account. Missing any element turns a defensible case into a credibility contest.
Traps
- Believing union avoidance means banning all talk of unions - that is itself a violation.
- Confusing mandatory and permissive bargaining subjects.
- Extending Weingarten-style representation beyond the unionized investigatory-interview context without checking current Board law.