Chamber of Commerce v. NLRB (“NLRB Poster Rule”)

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the district court and held that the NLRB does not have authority under the NLRA to promulgate the posting requirement. Below are some excerpts from the court's decision:

• “We agree with the district court that the rulemaking function provided for in the NLRA, by its express terms, only empowers the Board to carry out its statutorily defined reactive roles in addressing unfair labor practice charges and conducting representation elections upon request. Indeed, there is no function or responsibility of the Board not predicated upon the filing of an unfair labor practice charge or a representation petition.” Slip. Op. at 5 (emphasis added).
• “Here, . . . there is simply no authority to be limited: as we emphasize again, there is no general grant of power to the NLRB outside the roles of addressing ULP [unfair labor practice] charges and conducting representation elections. Indeed, the fact that none of the Act’s provisions contain language specifically limiting the Board’s authority to enact a notice-posting requirement reflects the absence of statutory authority for actions outside those defined responsibilities as a threshold matter.” Id. at 18-19.
• “We, like the Chamber, read the language in Section 6 [of the NLRA] as requiring that some section of the Act provide the explicit or implicit authority to issue a rule. Because the Board is nowhere charged with informing employees of their rights under the NLRA, we find no indication in the plain language of the Act that Congress intended to grant the Board authority to promulgate such a rule.” Id. at 21.