Tesla’s NLRB Loss Partly Based on Pro-Employer Precedent (1)

National Labor Relations Board rulings from the Trump era worked against Tesla Inc., with the board citing business-friendly precedent from recent years to find that the electric car company violated federal labor law.

The NLRB on Thursday upheld several unfair labor practice findings from an administrative law judge’s decision against Tesla, but it also found an additional violation where the judge did not. The board said the company’s rule prohibiting workers from talking with the media ran afoul of its case law for such policies.

The board had retooled its legal framework for deciding whether seemingly neutral workplace rules ...