By Richard J. Morgan

For over 75 years, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was one of a very few federal labor agencies that didn’t require employers to post a general notice of employee rights in the workplace. Yet, on December 22, 2010, the NLRB decided it would change its 75-year history. On that date, the NLRB proposed a rule that would require all employers subject to the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to post notices informing employees of their rights under the NLRA.

After the required notice and comment process, the NLRB published its final rule on August 30, 2011. After a number of extensions, the rule is currently set to take effect April 30, 2012.  However, the rule, and its posting requirements, may be delayed again because of an ongoing court battle.

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Recent actions taken by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) have sparked enough anger among employers to prompt a lawsuit, an ad campaign, and support for a bill in Congress that’s seen as a way to curb what one employer group calls a “rogue agency.”

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) filed a lawsuit on September 10 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to stop the NLRB from moving forward with a recently approved plan to require most employers — both union and nonunion — to display a new poster outlining worker rights.

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The National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena is a sign of increasing rancor stemming from the Board’s case against the Boeing Co.

The NLRB refused to comply with an August 5 subpoena from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that set an August 12 deadline for the agency to turn over documents related to the Board’s actions against Boeing.

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Tuesday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will begin its unfair labor practice case against Boeing, insisting that the company may not move some of its operations from Washington to South Carolina because the move might somehow violate workers’ rights. The outcome of this case goes well beyond South Carolina, but it is vitally important to the state — in particular, the Charleston area.

The complaint alleges that Boeing’s decision to move some operations to South Carolina was made in retaliation against the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) for work stoppages in the past. According to the complaint, the IAM had engaged in strikes against Boeing in 1977, 1989, 1995, 2005, and 2008. The union hasn’t represented Boeing employees in North Charleston since 2009, when employees at the facility voted to decertify it. The complaint asks the NLRB to require Boeing to relocate the production line to the Puget Sound facility.

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Last summer, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford signed legislation that requires private employers to verify the employment eligibility of new employees. On July 1, 2009, these rules will take effect for private employers with 100 or more employees.

Under the new verification laws, employers that are required by federal law to complete and maintain federal employment eligibility forms or documents (Form I-9s) have two options. First, they can use the E-verify federal work authorization program to verify all new employees’ information and work authorizations within five business days of their hire. E-Verify is a free online federal system that allows employers to electronically compare employee information taken from a Form I-9 against the records in the databases of the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.

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