A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, on the court’s second look, has upheld a decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that found an employer violated federal labor law when it fired a worker who wrote profanity on a workplace bulletin board in protest of a new overtime policy. The case raises the important issue of reconciling the conflict between an employer’s obligations under federal civil rights statutes and employee rights protected under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
Ruling in Constellium Rolled Products Ravenswood, LLC v. NLRB, No. 21-1191 (D.C. Cir. August 9, 2022), which was before the court a second time after it ordered the NLRB to reconsider the agency’s original findings, the D.C. Circuit upheld the Board’s determination that the company failed to show that it would have fired the worker even if he hadn’t engaged in NLRA-protected activity.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.