BNA Books Publishes 'NLRA Rights in the Nonunion Workplace' Focusing on the NLRA's Broad Application Outside the Union Workplace

ARLINGTON, Va., June 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- BNA Books, a division of specialized news and information publisher BNA, announced today the publication of NLRA Rights in the Nonunion Workplace, a resource devoted to exploring the National Labor Relations Act's (NLRA's) application in the nonunion workplace and the varying decisions of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regarding private sector employment issues.

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Many private-sector employees in the United States are nonunion, and a huge vacuum exists for a resource that addresses the NLRA's potential reach in the nonunion workplace. BNA Books' NLRA Rights in the Nonunion Workplace fills this gap, preparing attorneys who represent employees or employers, as well as human resources professionals, to spot potential NLRA issues, help them understand the options and associated risks, and provide sound advice to their clients.

With the prospect of a full five-member board and possible revisiting of the issue of Weingarten rights and other employee protections on the horizon, the release of this resource is fortuitous. The book's issue-by-issue examination of the Board's changing position on various issues will enable lawyers to analyze any new decisions or initiatives by the NLRB in order to pinpoint potential new areas of liability and formulate effective strategies. The protection against retaliation the NLRA affords employees is more extensive than that of any other anti-retaliation statute, and the exploration of critical issues in NLRA Rights in the Nonunion Workplace is equally expansive, including discussion of:        

• NLRA threshold requirements for employees to be protected against employer reprisals, the broad contours of that protection once it attaches, and the conditions under which it may be lost
• Civil penalties under ERISA Section 502(c)(4)
• The vulnerability of seemingly benign rules in employee handbooks, and the various ways in which a rule or its application can beget liability
• Employee participation committees and the NLRA's prohibition against them, as well as the narrow—and easy to violate—exceptions
• Issues surrounding union organizers applying for jobs in nonunion companies for the purpose of organizing (salting)
• Potential liability in conducting investigations of employee misconduct, denying an interviewee's request for coworker assistance, and suspensions pending investigation

With the contours of NLRA protections subject to reexamination under a new Board, NLRA Rights in the Nonunion Workplace is sure to be a helpful resource both for attorneys less familiar with labor law and for traditional labor lawyers and labor professionals. This is the only treatise that is completely focused on this highly prevalent, and timely, topic.

Daniel S. Bowling, III, Senior Lecturing Professor for Duke University School of Law, states, "Kenneth Lopatka's book is a welcome and necessary addition to the labor law literature. It will come as a surprise to many contemporary business owners and practicing lawyers, as well as academics not versed in traditional labor law, that the NLRA is just as real and relevant in the nonunion workplace as are more familiar laws pertaining to employment discrimination. While there are many resources available to those engaged in collective bargaining or union organizing, the same is not true when it comes to the nonunion workplace. Lopatka's excellent treatment fills this gaping hole on the modern labor law bookshelf."

The author, Kenneth T. Lopatka, is adjunct professor at the Charleston Law School. He has been a partner at a number of major law firms across the country, and litigated a wide variety of labor and employment law matters and non-employment cases, as well as negotiating numerous collective bargaining agreements and executive employment contracts, and representing employers in arbitrations and other alternative dispute resolutions. From August 1, 2007 until January 2009, Mr. Lopatka was Chief Counsel to Robert J. Battista, then Chairman of the NLRB, and also served on then-Chairman Peter Schaumber's staff.

BNA is a leading private publisher of news and information products for professionals in law and business. In addition to the NLRA Rights in the Nonunion Workplace, BNA's Book Division publishes Covenants Not to Compete: A State-by-State Survey; Elkouri & Elkouri: How Arbitration Works; Employment Discrimination Law; Equal Employment Law Update; The Fair Labor Standards Act; How ADR Works; How to Take a Case Before the NLRB; International Labor and Employment Laws; Labor Union Law and Regulation; The Railway Labor Act; Reductions in Force in Employment Law; Wage and Hour Laws: A State-by-State Survey; Winning at the NLRB; and other titles in legal specialties. For a free BNA Books catalog, call 1-800-960-1220 or send an e-mail request to [email protected]. The BNA Books website, including an online catalog, can be found at bnabooks.com.

NLRA Rights in the Nonunion Workplace (374 pp. Softcover/ISBN 978-1-57018-923-4/Order #1923-PR10/$145.00 plus tax, shipping and handling) may be purchased from BNA Books, PO Box 7814, Edison, NJ 08818-7814.  Telephone orders: 1-800-960-1220. Fax orders: 1-732-346-1624. A 10 percent discount is available when ordering from the BNA Books Web site (discounts cannot be combined).

SOURCE BNA Books