What Issues Are on the NLRB’s Radar? Be Afraid; Be Very Afraid

If you want to know the legal issues that are on the NLRB’s radar, you need to look no further than NLRB General Counsel Memo 16-01 [pdf], which lists those categories of cases that “are of particular interest and would benefit from centralized consideration.” In other words, which cases must the NLRB’s regions submit to D.C. for charge-or-don’t-charge decisions?

Several areas defined as “initiatives and/or priorities” caught my attention, and should catch yours too:

• Cases involving the application of Purple Communications to electronic systems other than email (think text messages, intranets, and corporate-branded social-media channels).

• Cases involving the applicability of Weingarten principles in non-unionized settings.

• Cases involving allegations that “English-only” policies violate Section 8(a)(1).

• Cases involving the employment status of workers in the on-demand economy.

• Cases involving the question of whether the misclassification of employees as independent contractors violates Section 8(a)(1).

Stay tuned. It looks like the NLRB will be very busy as its current iteration (potentially) serves out its usefulness in 2016.