Fire Sprinkler Firm Illegally Axed Workers, Labor Judge Says

A fire sprinkler installer committed a series of unfair labor practices against its unionized workforce and misclassified two employees as independent contractors, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled.

But Atomic Fire Protection LLC’s misclassification didn’t violate federal labor law because it didn’t prevent them from organizing nor did it happen in response to union activity, and a Trump-era NLRB decision held that misclassification itself isn’t an independent unfair labor practice, Administrative Law Judge Sarah Karpinen said in her Monday ruling.

The ruling provides NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo with a vehicle to challenge the board’s 2019 decision in ...