Less than half (just under 41 percent) of employees at the National Labor Relations Board are satisfied with the policies and practices of the NLRB’s senior leaders.  That’s a pretty bleak number for the agency charged with negotiating disputes between labor and management.

According to a recent survey of NLRB employees, the agency’s senior leadership is in need of some serious improvement.  While employees gave high marks to their own accomplishments and sense of purpose, leadership at the NLRB seems to be seriously lacking, receiving low marks pretty much across the board.

Among the survey findings, some highlights that stand out include:

  • Less than 44 percent of employees feel motivated to “come up with new and better ways of doing things.”  So much for innovation or improving the agency’s efficiency and efficacy.
  • Only 39 percent agreed that their training needs are assessed, implying some serious negligence when it comes to keeping employees up-to-date with training that could be vital to their jobs.
  • Just over a quarter (25.45 percent) feel “steps are taken to deal with a poor performer who cannot or will not improve.”  That doesn’t bode well for the agency’s reputation or performance record.
  • Less than 30 percent agree that differences in work performance are “recognized in a meaningful way,” suggesting there is no incentive for improvement at the troubled agency.

 

Perhaps most telling is the fact that less than half of the employees surveyed agreed that “arbitrary action, personal favoritism and coercion for partisan political purposes are not tolerated.”  It doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, but for an agency that is supposed to be an unbiased arbitrator of labor disputes, the fact that partisan political motivations are so widely accepted certainly does say something.

Fortunately for NLRB leaders, unionization isn’t an option at the agency, since most NLRB employees are already unionized.  But perhaps the NLRB needs to focus on its own workplace satisfaction issues before they can truly address larger disputes between labor and management.

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AZ Daily Sun--Coconino Voices: PRO Act legislation would hurt local businesses

— 05.13.2021 —
By: Julie Pastrik Arizona businesses and workers have had an incredibly challenging year given the economic slowdown that followed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. However, local businesses and industries across the state are resilient and on the road to a strong recovery that will mean more jobs for Arizona workers and increased economic development to strengthen our communities. That is, as long as Congress does not move forward with potentially devastating legislation that would hurt local employers and employees alike while impeding our state’s economic recovery. Unfortunately, some members of Congress seem determined to do just that by pushing through the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. As harmless as the name may sound, the PRO Act would have serious repercussions for local businesses, particularly smaller ones, while undermining long-standing rights for employees and threatening the growing gig economy that has helped provide much-needed income for so many during this time. Arizona is fortunate to have leaders like Senators Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema, who have both refrained from joining the vast majority of their Democratic colleagues in cosponsoring the PRO Act. In a slap in the face to Arizona workers, the PRO Act removes one of the most fundamental rights a worker has when it comes to voting in elections to determine whether to unionize: the secret ballot. Instead, workers could be forced to sign union authorization cards in front of other employees, their employer, or union organizers. This bill would also destroy workers’ right to privacy by allowing unions access to personal information, including their home address and personal phone number. If that doesn’t open the door to union intimidation and harassment, I don’t know what does. As if that was not bad enough, the PRO Act would create major new challenges for Arizona businesses, making it harder for them to create jobs, expand in their communities, and even keep their doors open. It would redefine what it means to be a “joint employer” under national labor law, greatly complicating existing relationships between franchisors and franchisees as well as between business owners, contractors, subcontractors, and vendors and suppliers. At the same time, it would interfere with attorney-client confidentiality and make it much more difficult for small businesses to secure a legal advice on labor issues. Particularly harmful during these times, the PRO Act would apply a failed policy from California to national labor law by using the “ABC” test to determine whether a worker is an independent contractor or employee. This makes it much harder to qualify as an independent contractor, threatening the freedom and flexibility that tens of thousands of Arizonans find in independent contracting and gig economy work. Ultimately, the PRO Act is bad public policy that only works for union leaders to inflate their falling ranks while threatening workers’ rights, undermining small businesses, and jeopardizing a growing part of our economy. This is not a good solution for Arizona, and Senators Sinema and Kelly should stay firm and not cosponsor this misguided legislation.
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