Even Non-Union Employees Have Rights Under the NLRA

The place to start in understanding this little known, but increasingly important area of the law is ' 7 of the NLRA. It is here that Congress enshrined the right of employees to acted as a group ' 'concertedly' ' in regard to 'wages, hours and other terms and conditions' of employment. Specifically, this law provides that non-supervisory employees have the right to:

' self-organization, to form join, or assist any labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection. (Emphasis supplied).

It is this 'mutual aid or protection' language at the end of this clause that federal courts and the National Labor Relations Board have interpreted as protecting the group rights of even non-union employees. As early as 1962, in NLRB v. Washington Aluminum Co., 370 U.S. 9 (1962), the Supreme Court held that employees without a union may take collective and concerted actions to air their grievances regarding their terms and conditions of employment. All that is required is that the conduct is both concerted (meaning acting together or merely seeking to initiate or prepare for group action) and engaged in for the employees' mutual aid or protection. Employees need only act with or on the authority of other employees and in pursuit of a collective aim, rather than simply to advance a personal aim.

Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA is the muscle behind ' 7. Section 8(a)(1) provides that a company commits an unfair labor practice if it takes any action to 'interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of rights guaranteed in Section 7.' This most often means that an employer violates the Act and opens itself up to the full range of remedies whenever it terminates or disciplines an employee or takes any other adverse action against an employee who engages in collected concerted activities. Section 8(a)(1) is particularly potent because it can be violated, even if a company does not intend to deny employees their ' 7 rights ' an employer will be found to have committed an unfair labor practice regardless of any malicious intent.