NLRB, Racetrack Food Services, Inc., 353 NLRB No. 76 (2008)

This recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board, Racetrack Food Services, Inc., 353 NLRB No. 76 (2008), upheld the decision of an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) that the employer violated the Act by closing its fifth floor dining room and bar on Wednesday and Thursday nights, without giving the union an opportunity to bargain over that decision and its effects.

Held: ..even though the operational change itself did not directly relate to the terms and conditions of employment, the decision (and not merely the effects) was a mandatory subject of bargaining because (1) labor costs were one factor in the decision, (2) it negatively affected the employees, and (3) the decision did not involve (in the ALJ’s words) “a basic change in the nature and scope of its food service operation that excuses the bargaining duty….. The restaurant continues to operate exactly as it always has since it was opened, albeit with a reduced schedule.”

This NLRB ruling makes it clear that even operational changes may constitute mandatory subjects of bargaining, so long as there is no change to the basic “nature of the operation.”
JoeC (McGruff)