As previously reported below, earlier this month U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson upheld in part the NLRB’s rule requiring employers to post a notice described employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act. On March 7, 2012, Judge Jackson denied the employers’ request to enjoin the NLRB from enforcing the rule pending their appeal of the court’s order upholding the posting requirement. In her order, Judge Jackson found, among other things, that the employers had not established that they would suffer irreparable harm if the posting requirement were allowed to take effect. This was particularly the case, according to the judge, in light of her prior order invalidating the portion of the NLRB’s rule that made the mere failure to post the notice an unfair labor practice. The judge was not persuaded that an “absence of injunctive relief will lead to uncertainty and confusion in the business community.” On balance, the public interest also favored denying the employers’ requested injunction because the notice was intended to increase employees’ awareness of their rights, which the judge observed was “undoubtedly in the public interest.”
Thus, barring any further developments in this case or in a separate federal lawsuit in South Carolina, employers covered by the NLRA will need to post a required employee rights notice as of April 30, 2012