Business Groups Call for NLRB to Rescind the 2014 Expedited Election Rule

Employment Law

HR Policy Association and other trade groups urged the National Labor Relations Board to reverse an Obama-era rule, reasoning it undermines employers' statutorily-protected rights, unnecessarily strains resources of all stakeholders (including the Board), and results in post-election uncertainties and litigation.  Although the amended election rules, which took effect in 2015, have sped up union elections by about two weeks, the comments note the rule also has:

• Precluded employees from knowing, before votes are cast in the election, which of their co-workers they will ultimately be grouped with for collective bargaining purposes;
  
  
• Stifled full and robust debate among employees on whether to be represented by a union by imposing unreasonably expedited schedules; and
  
  
• Limited employees’ ability to know and identify who their statutory representatives are before the election by eliminating almost all pre-election representation hearings.

NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb and House and Senate committee leaders also submitted comments calling on the Board to rescind the rule.  With the recent confirmation of John Ring restoring the five-member NLRB to a GOP majority after four months of stalemate, the Board may publish a proposed rule addressing the matter before the end of the year.