Biden Administration Leans Into Weingarten Rights For All

It is good to look at issues from more than one perspective.  Let’s do that with this from the Ohio Employer Law Blog article The NLRB is inching toward Weingarten rights for all workers.  Current law holds only workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement are covered protected by Weingarten.  All members of UAW Local 2250 are protected.  Click the Resources tab on the top of this site to get a printable card stating your Weingarten Rights that can be presented if needed.

In NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court held that employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement are entitled to request the presence of a union representative during an investigatory interview that the employee reasonably believes may result in disciplinary action.

In the 47 years post-Weingarten, however, the Board has vacillated on the issue of whether those rights also extend to non-union employees. For example, in 2000, in Epilepsy Foundation of Northeast Ohio, the Clinton-era Board found that employees in non-union settings have Weingarten rights to a coworker representative during investigatory interviews. More recently, however, the Bush-era Board, in IBM Corp., concluded the exact opposite, that, in light of certain policy considerations, the Board would no longer find that employees in non-union workplaces have the right to a coworker representative. Finally, in 2017, an Obama-era Board Advice Memo called for the Board to flip again and hold Weingarten rights extend to employees in non-union workplaces.

Which brings us to last week’s Board decision in Troy Grove.