Definition of "unfair Labor Practice"
The NLRB has the authority to investigate and remedy unfair labor practices, which are defined in Section 8 of the Act. In broad terms, the NLRB makes it unlawful for an employer to:
- interfere with two or more employees acting in concert to protect rights provided for in the Act, whether or not a union exists
- to dominate or interfere with the formation or administration of a labor organization
- to discriminate against employees for engaging in concerted or union activities or refraining from them
- to discriminate against an employee for filing charges with the NLRB or taking part in any NLRB proceedings
- to refuse to bargain with the union that is the lawful representative of its employees
The Act similarly bars unions from:
- restraining or coercing employees in the exercise of their rights or an employer in the choice of its bargaining representative
- causing an employer to discriminate against an employee
- refusing to bargain with the employer of the employees it represents
- engaging in certain types of secondary boycotts
- requiring excessive dues
- engaging in featherbedding (requiring an employer to pay for unneeded workers)
- picketing for recognition for more than thirty days without petitioning for an election
- entering into "hot cargo" agreements (refusing to handle goods from an anti-union employer)
- striking or picketing a health care establishment without giving the required notice
Applying this general language to the real world requires, in the words of Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, "distinctions more nice than obvious". The substantive law applied by the NLRB is described elsewhere under specific headings devoted to particular topics.
Not every unfair act amounts to an unfair labor practice; as an example, failing to pay an individual worker overtime pay for hours worked in excess of forty hours in a week might be a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, but it is unlikely to amount to an unfair labor practice as well. Similarly, a violation of a collective bargaining agreement, standing alone, may not constitute an unfair labor practice unless the employer has not only violated the contract but repudiated all or part of it.
Read more about this topic: Unfair Labor Practice
Famous quotes containing the words definition of, definition, unfair, labor and/or practice:
“Scientific method is the way to truth, but it affords, even in
principle, no unique definition of truth. Any so-called pragmatic
definition of truth is doomed to failure equally.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“The physicians say, they are not materialists; but they are:MSpirit is matter reduced to an extreme thinness: O so thin!But the definition of spiritual should be, that which is its own evidence. What notions do they attach to love! what to religion! One would not willingly pronounce these words in their hearing, and give them the occasion to profane them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“I think its unfair for people to try to make successful blacks feel guilty for not feeling guilty.... Were unique in that were not supposed to enjoy the things weve worked so hard for.”
—Patricia Grayson, African American administrator. As quoted in Time magazine, p. 59 (March 13, 1989)
“For Afro-Americans, it could be argued that every year theyve spent in this country since they arrived in chains to perform forced labor has been 1984.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that have not wit enough to be honest.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (16131680)