Employer Does Not Violate NLRA If It Has No Actual Knowledge of the Protected Nature of the Employee's Activity

Author: Irene Stavrellis Englert, Englert Legal Consulting, LLC.

In Meijer, Inc. v. NLRB, +463 F.3d 534 (6th Cir. 2006), the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals addressed whether (1) an employer must have knowledge of the protected nature of an employee's activity in order to commit an National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) violation; (2) whether an employer may restrict employee union solicitation in a retail parking lot that is not a working area; (3) whether the employer effectively repudiated its illegal conduct when it sent the employee a letter stating that he could only solicit for a certain union in the non-retail parking lot; and (4) whether the employer violated the NLRA by only allowing solicitation for one union and excluding all others.