With that the NLRB’s quickie election rules going into effect in April 2015, we are just now starting to see the Board decide cases applying the new rules.
In Danbury Hospital, Case 01-RC-153086, the Regional Director for Region 1 on October 16, 2015, lent his interpretation to one of the new requirements of the quickie election rules, namely the employer’s obligation to provide employees’ personal phone number and personal email address if such data was “available” to the employer.
There, the employer provided the union with all of the personal phone and email addresses it had in its human resources computer system- about 94% of the bargaining unit. The human resources computer system did not have this data for the other 6% of the bargaining unit. An election was held where the union was narrowly defeated. The union filed objections to the election and asking for a re-run election claiming that the employer failed to comply with the new quickie election rules by failing to provide the personal email addresses and phone numbers for the other 6% of the bargaining unit. At the objections hearing, it was discovered that one of the employer’s supervisors maintained an independent list of email addresses and phone numbers separate from the human resources computer system.
The Regional Director, agreeing with the union, found that because the employer did not supplement the list it collected from its human resources software with the supervisor’s list it failed to comply with the new rules and thus ordered a re-run election.
Based on this case, it is clear that the NLRB is taking a very broad view of the new quickie election rules. Employers should take steps now to consolidate employees’ personal information prior to union organizing attempts. If you have any questions about this case, or the Board’s new quickie rules, please feel free to contact us.