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NLRB: Who Said There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch? Not So Fast; Protected Concerted Activity at Play


Gates & Sons Barbeque of Missouri, Inc. and Workers' Organizing Committee, Kansas City - NLRB


Facts:  Gates & Sons operated a chain of successful barbeque restaurants.  One of the benefits offered to its employees was a free meal, valued between six and ten dollars, each day an employee was scheduled to work.  The Gates & Sons location involved in this case was highly successful and its employees at the location enjoyed the free lunch benefit.

A Workers' Organizing Center (which are often affiliated with labor unions) entered the picture and used a tried and true labor tactic, a strike, in order to help the employees advocate for higher hourly pay.  Unlike a traditional labor strike called by a union in support of a collective bargaining demand, this was a one day strike by the workers.  Even though these workers were not represented by a union, they still have the right to engage in "concerted activities for...mutual aid or protection" under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act ("Act").  It is important to remember that in the absence of violence or other untoward conduct, strikers may not be punished or discharged for engaging in a strike.  Once the workers engaged in the one day strike in support of higher wages, they returned to work the following day.  However, Gates & Sons apparently eliminated the workers' free meal benefit. 

Holding:  The Administrative Law Judge held that Gates & Sons' decision to terminate the free meal benefits was a form of retaliation against the workers that engaged in the protected one day strike.  As a result, terminating the free meal benefit was in violation of Section 8(a)(1) of the Act which prohibits employers from restraining, coercing, or interfering with the employees' right to engage in concerted protected activity.  Consequently, Gates & Sons was ordered to reinstate the free meal benefit and otherwise make the employees whole for any other losses they incurred as a result of the termination of the meal benefit.

Date:  June 17, 2014

Opinion:  http://www.nlrb.gov/case/14-CA-110229

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