Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Kiewit Power 355 NLRB No. 155 (2010)

In Kiewit Power, the electricians working on a turbine had a ten minute walk to a break area, but by contract, they only had a fifteen minute break. The practice was that they were allowed to walk to their break area and then begin the break, effectively taking a 35 minute break. However, management decided to end this practice and informed the electricians that they would need to break where they were working. The men objected on several grounds, including that where they were working was not a sanitary place to take a break. The men refused to obey the directive to break where they were and a supervisor was tasked with issuing verbal warnings (the first step in their progressive disciplinary system).  One interaction became...heated as depicted below. The NLRB had to determine whether an electrician's objections ceased to be protected activity.  The full text is linked here.

No comments:

Post a Comment