Employers Must Pay for Refusing to Bargain, NLRB Lawyers Say

The National Labor Relations Board’s legal division is urging the board to strengthen its remedy for employers illegally refusing to negotiate for a labor contract by requiring them to pay what workers would have gotten if a deal had been reached.

The NLRB’s current practice of ordering employers that ignored their legal bargaining obligations to negotiate—which they were already required to do—rewards them for violating the National Labor Relations Act, the general counsel’s office argued in a filing last week. Employers benefit from prolonged delay by pushing off the prospect of a deal that might increase labor costs and weakening ...