U.S. Law Week’s November 2025 Circuit Split Review: Labor Rights

Employers are caught in limbo amid a widening circuit split over whether the National Labor Relations Board can make employers compensate workers for the downstream economic consequences of labor law violations.

The board held it possesses that authority in 2022 in Thryv, Inc. based on language in the National Labor Relations Act allowing it to take “affirmative action” to effectuate policies underlying the statute and remedy unfair labor practices.

But the Third, Fifth, and Sixth Circuits rebuffed the NLRB, saying it lacks such authority since it’s only authorized to impose equitable remedies like backpay, not legal remedies like ...