National Labor Relations Board
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The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent federal agency established in 1935.[1]
Noteworthy events
NLRB rules that agency ALJs were properly appointed (2018)
The commissioners of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled on August 6, 2018, that the agency's ALJs were validly appointed by the agency pursuant to the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution. The commissioners' unanimous vote rejected a challenge by Westrock Services Inc., a graphics printing company, that argued for the dismissal of the company's case before the NLRB on the grounds that the agency's ALJs had not been properly appointed.[2][3]
Westrock claimed that the NLRB's ALJs had not been appointed by the appropriate department head. The company argued that only the heads of cabinet-level agencies and the departments included under 5 U.S.C. § 101 constituted department heads for the purposes of the Appointments Clause. As such, Westrock argued that the NLRB commissioners did not have the authority to ratify their ALJ appointments.[2][3]
The NLRB commissioners rejected Westrock's claims and based their dismissal on the United States Supreme Court's decision in Lucia v. SEC, which held that the ALJs of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are inferior officers of the United States who must be appointed by the SEC commissioners, rather than hired by agency staff, in accordance with the Appointments Clause. The NLRB commissioners also cited Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which held that the SEC, as a “freestanding component of the Executive Branch, not subordinate to or contained within any other such component, ... constitutes a ‘Departmen[t]’ for the purposes of the Appointments Clause.” Therefore, the NLRB concluded that its commissioners, like those of the SEC, jointly function as a department head for the purposes of the Appointment Clause.[3]
Westrock had not responded to the ruling as of August 7, 2018. The company can appeal the decision in federal court.[2]
U.S. Supreme Court upholds employer arbitration agreements, declines to apply Chevron deference (2018)
On Monday, May 21, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that arbitration agreements between employers and employees are enforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The Supreme Court ruling reversed and remanded a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which had ruled that the agreement violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and was not enforceable under the FAA.
The case involved a dispute between Epic Systems Corporation and a group of its employees regarding an arbitration agreement for wage-and-hour claims. In writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch observed that the case did not qualify for Chevron deference—a principle of judicial review in which a federal court defers to a federal agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous statute that the agency administers. Chevron did not apply, according to Gorsuch, because no ambiguity existed in the NLRA statute, which is administered by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Instead, Gorsuch wrote that the NLRB had sought to "interpret [the NLRA] in a way that limits the work of the Arbitration Act, which the agency does not administer."
Gorsuch further stated that Congress had put forth clear instructions for the enforcement of arbitration agreements in the NLRA and that any effort to change the policy must come from Congress itself. He wrote, "The policy may be debatable but the law is clear: Congress has instructed that arbitration agreements like those before us must be enforced as written. While Congress is of course always free to amend this judgment, we see nothing suggesting it did so in the NLRA—much less that it manifested a clear intention to displace the Arbitration Act.”[4][5]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ National Labor Relations Board, "Our History," accessed April 9, 2018
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Bloomberg News, "Labor Board Affirms Appointments of In-House Judges," August 6, 2018
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 National Labor Relations Board, "NLRB Administrative Law Judges Validly Appointed," August 6, 2018
- ↑ WAMU, "Supreme Court Decision Delivers Blow To Workers’ Rights," May 21, 2018
- ↑ Red State, "BREAKING. SCOTUS Overturns Arbitration Ruling By NLRB And Gives Congress Real Work To Do," May 21, 2018
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