Dive Brief:
- President Donald Trump’s pick for the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) acting chair will enable a pro-business agenda, reports SHRM. Philip Miscimarra will likely focus more on business interests than employee handbooks in nonunion workplaces, Donald Schroeder, a Boston-based attorney told SHRM.
- Speaking in 2015 at SHRM's 2015 Employment Law & Legislative Conference, Miscimarra said he wondered why the NLRB continued interfering with nonunion workplaces.
- Given his pro-business stance, Miscimarra is expected to reverse some NLRB rulings, include a rule change that expanded the definition of “joint employer” from one entity having direct control over another to one entity having indirect control over another.
Dive Insight:
Miscimarra was candid about his views of NLRB rulings before his appointment on Jan. 23. Employers should expect changes in rulings that many find burdensome.
Employment laws require employers to conduct internal investigations when workers file complaints. But employers say the NLRB hampers internal investigations by not allowing them to guarantee employees’ confidentiality as witnesses. Employers must prove confidentiality is necessary through a “balancing test.”
It's standards like this that Miscimarra and Republican NLRB members are expected to roll back under the Trump administration.
