Oct 16, 2007

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Controversial New NLRB Ruling: Act Only Protects People Who Want Jobs

The NLRB has limited the National Labor Relations Act’s protections to only those job applicants who really want jobs they apply for. This will finally cut out all those independently wealthy jerks who apply for jobs and then turn them down just for laughs.

In Toering Electric Co., 351 NLRB No. 18, the Board said that only applicants with a “genuine interest” in developing an employment relationship with an employer will be covered under the Act. The General Counsel will have the ultimate burden to prove the applicant intended to develop the relationship, and the Board said that he could use receipts from restaurants and movie theaters where the applicant took the employer on dates and witness testimony of hand holding and make-out sessions at clubs as evidence.

Yeah, we made that last part up.

This is really another assault on the union strategy of “salting” that the Board seems oddly obsessed with lately.

As we previously reported, The Board limited salting protection earlier this year, holding that Salts would have to prove they planned to stay after the campaign if they wanted back pay for being let go. In Toering Electric, the Board (though seriously divided) raises the bar for bringing a claim at all, holding that Section 2(3) requires at least a “rudimentary economic relationship” that is absent in true salting cases.

The dissent went to town on that, saying nothing in the Act says anything about a person’s motives for applying – that you could be our hypothetical billionaire above and the NLRA should afford you the same protection as anyone else.

The big problem we see here is that the Supreme Court unanimously held that salts were protected under Section 2(3). If this trend in the Board continues – we see a trip to the Big House coming soon – and with the Supremes walking with their new gangstar lean, the Board may find the support they’re looking for.

Let us know what you think in the comments.