Deadline extended for poster mandate compliance

The National Labor Relations Board last month pushed the compliance deadline for businesses to post a new federal workplace poster regarding employees' union-organizing rights to April 30, 2012.

Employers received the three-month reprieve on the regulation's effective date after a federal court held a Dec. 19 hearing on a lawsuit that challenges whether the NLRB is authorized to impose the requirement at all. The National Restaurant Association is one of the parties to the lawsuit, as part of the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace.

After hearing arguments in the case, the court strongly suggested that the NLRB delay its Jan. 31 effective date. The NLRB announced the three-month delay Dec. 23.
The poster mandate, first proposed by the NLRB in December 2010, requires all employers subject to the National Labor Relations Act to post a notice outlining employees’ rights to organize and bargain collectively. The NLRB rule makes failure to post the new employee rights notice an unfair labor practice. The NLRB originally set the compliance deadline for Nov. 14, 2011, but then moved it to Jan. 31 after widespread complaints from the business community.
The NRA has from the beginning questioned the NLRB's authority to require such a posting. The NRA and 31 state restaurant associations filed comments in February 2011 objecting to the NLRB's proposed regulation. After the NLRB made the mandate final this summer, the NRA and other employer groups in the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace joined the lawsuit filed by the National Association of Manufacturers seeking to block the regulation.