Labor Board Can Award Legal Costs From Bargaining: 9th Cir. (1)

The National Labor Relations Board can order the Santa Barbara News-Press to reimburse a union representing newsroom employees for legal fees it racked up during the collective bargaining process, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled.

Although the NLRB lacks the power to force employers to pay a union’s legal fees incurred during litigation, ordering the reimbursement of such expenses that come from bargaining “falls squarely within the heartland of the NLRB’s delegated powers,” the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in its ruling Thursday.

“The award of legal fees in this case is exactly the ...