Skip to content

Menu

LexBlog, Inc. logo
CommunitySub-MenuPublishersChannelsProductsSub-MenuBlog ProBlog PlusBlog PremierMicrositeSyndication PortalsAboutContactResourcesSubscribeSupport
Join
Search
Close

NLRB Proposes Rule to Settle Once and For All: Student Teaching and Research Assistants Are Not “Employees”

By Paul Salvatore, Steven Porzio & Laura Franks on September 20, 2019
Email this postTweet this postLike this postShare this post on LinkedIn

As anticipated, today the National Labor Relations Board published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) proposing a regulation which would establish that students at private colleges and universities who perform any services related to their studies for compensation, including teaching and research, are not “employees” within the meaning of Section 2(3) of the National Labor Relations Act. The proposed rule would bring certainty to the student employee-status issue, which the Board oscillated on three times in sixteen years. Per the Board, the proposed rule would promote the purposes and policies of the Act “which contemplates jurisdiction over economic relationships, not those that are primarily educational in nature.”

The Road to Rulemaking

Though Section 2(3) of the Act defines the meaning of “employee” in broad terms, the Act does not explicitly address whether students performing teaching and research services at private universities in exchange for stipends are included within that definition. Thus, over the course of 45 years, the Board has been asked to visit and re-visit the scope of the definition of “employee” in order to determine whether or not student teaching and research assistants fall within it.

Indeed, since the 1970s, the Board has issued five seminal decisions directly addressing the issue, beginning with its decision in Adelphi University, 195 NLRB 639, 640 (1972). In Adelphi, the Board found graduate students serving as teaching and research assistants were “primarily students,” not “employees.” The Board subsequently overruled itself three times on this issue; first in New York University, 332 NLRB 1205 (2000) (graduate teaching and research assistants were “employees”), next in Brown University, 342 NLRB 483 (2004) (the relationship between student assistants and their universities was “primarily educational” rather than economic), and most recently in Columbia University, 364 NLRB No. 90 (2016) (returning to NYU, finding that student teaching and research assistants were statutory “employees”).

In this atmosphere of unpredictability, the Board turned to rulemaking in order to provide institutions of higher education and students alike with certainty as to whether or not student teaching and research assistants are “employees” within the meaning of the Act.

The Proposed Rule

Importantly, the proposed rule makes clear that both graduate and undergraduate students performing services in connection with their studies would be excluded from the Act’s coverage. In crafting this broad rule, the Board relied on the majority decision in Brown that such students are “primarily students” with a “primarily educational” relationship with their universities, not an economic one. Further, the Board’s proposed rule rejected NYU and Columbia on the basis that Brown and the proposed rule “reflect[] an understanding of Section 2(3) that is more consistent with the overall purposes of the Act.”

In the NPRM, the Board articulated several premises in support of its proposed rule which underscored the educational aspects of students teaching and research assistantships. In particular, the Board highlighted the fact that teaching and research services performed by students are “vital” to their education, and that such students spend the majority of their time focused on coursework and studies rather than their assistantship duties. Moreover, the Board found that funding received by student assistants was more accurately characterized as “financial aid” rather than “consideration for work.” Finally, the Board noted that the faculty-student relationship is ill-suited to collective bargaining, as the relationship is centered on the advancement of students’ education, rather than the interests of a traditional employer-employee relationship.

Next Steps

The comment period runs for 60 days from the date the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register, which is scheduled to occur on Monday September 23. The NLRB has a history of extending comment periods, so the time to comment may be extended past 60 days. Next, the NLRB will review all of the submitted comments and determine whether its proposed rule should be modified. Once the Board has completed this process, which we suspect will take several months, the Board will issue a Final Rule and provide a date for when the effective date of the Final Rule. Based on this timeline, we anticipate a Final Rule to be out by Spring 2020.

Photo of Paul Salvatore Paul Salvatore

Paul Salvatore provides strategic labor and employment law advice to companies, boards of directors, senior executives and general counsel in such areas as labor-management relations, major litigation, alternative dispute resolution, international labor and employment issues, and corporate transactions.

Paul negotiates major collective bargaining…

Paul Salvatore provides strategic labor and employment law advice to companies, boards of directors, senior executives and general counsel in such areas as labor-management relations, major litigation, alternative dispute resolution, international labor and employment issues, and corporate transactions.

Paul negotiates major collective bargaining agreements in several industries, including real estate and construction. In 2015, he represented the NYC real estate industry’s multi-employer organization, The Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations (RAB), in its $8 billion collective bargaining agreements with SEIU Local 32BJ. Paul also represented the Cement League, a multiemployer group of NYC area superstructure contractors, in halting an illegal strike by the Carpenters Union and negotiating a significant new collective bargaining agreement. He previously negotiated, on behalf of The Related Companies with 18 New York City construction unions, a landmark project labor agreement (PLA) for Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s West Side, the largest private real estate development in U.S. history.

Read more about Paul SalvatoreEmail
Show more Show less
Photo of Steven Porzio Steven Porzio

Steven J. Porzio is a partner in the Labor & Employment Law Department and a member of the Labor-Management Relations Group. Steve assists both unionized and union-free clients with a full range of labor and employee relations matters. He represents employers in contract…

Steven J. Porzio is a partner in the Labor & Employment Law Department and a member of the Labor-Management Relations Group. Steve assists both unionized and union-free clients with a full range of labor and employee relations matters. He represents employers in contract negotiations, arbitrations, and representation and unfair labor practice cases before the National Labor Relations Board.

Steve has experience conducting vulnerability assessments and providing management training in union and litigation avoidance, leave management, wage and hour, and hiring and firing practices. He provides strategic and legal advice in certification and decertification elections, union organizing drives, corporate campaigns, picketing and union contract campaigns. Steve has represented employers in a number of different industries, including higher education, health care, construction and manufacturing in successful efforts against unions in election and corporate campaigns.

In addition to his traditional labor law work, Steve assists companies with handbook and personnel policy drafting and review, daily management of employee disciplines and terminations, and general advice and counsel on compliance with federal and state employment laws.

Read more about Steven PorzioEmail
Show more Show less
Photo of Laura Franks Laura Franks
Email
  • Posted in:
    Employment & Labor
  • Blog:
    Labor Relations Update
  • Organization:
    Proskauer Rose LLP
  • Article: View Original Source

LexBlog, Inc. logo
Facebook LinkedIn Twitter RSS
Real Lawyers
99 Park Row
  • About LexBlog
  • Careers
  • Press
  • Contact LexBlog
  • Privacy Policy
  • Editorial Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms of Service
  • RSS Terms of Service
  • Products
  • Blog Pro
  • Blog Plus
  • Blog Premier
  • Microsite
  • Syndication Portals
  • LexBlog Community
  • 1-800-913-0988
  • Submit a Request
  • Support Center
  • System Status
  • Resource Center

New to the Network

  • The FTI Award Journal
  • International Dispute Resolution
  • China Law Update Blog
  • Law of The Ledger
  • Antitrust Law Blog
Copyright © 2022, LexBlog, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Law blog design & platform by LexBlog LexBlog Logo