Earlier this month, I posted about new labor law posters that employers need to use, perhaps as early as late January 2012.
Now on Wednesday comes news that the NLRB has adopted a final rule amending its election case procedures. Labor Relations Today reports that this will “shorten the time between the filing of a petition and the conduct of an election”. The rule is due to take effect April 30, 2012.
The rule is primarily focused on procedures followed by the NLRB in the minority of cases in which parties can’t agree on issues such as whether the employees covered by the election petition are an appropriate voting group. In such cases, the matter goes to a hearing in a regional office and the NLRB Regional Director decides the question and sets the election.
Going forward, the regional hearings will be expressly limited to issues relevant to the question of whether an election should be conducted. The hearing officer will have the authority to limit testimony to relevant issues, and to decide whether or not to accept post-hearing briefs.
There are already legal challenges to these proposed rules so stay tuned for additional details in the months ahead.