Sunday, July 1, 2012

Higher Ed & HR: Here we go again... NLRB will revisit the status of Grad Assistants

English: Color logo of the National Labor Relations Board, an independent agency of the United States federal government. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Clinton National Labor Relations Board declared Grad Assistants at NYU to be primarily employees, subject to the National Labor Relation's Acts jurisdiction. Then the Bush NLRB reversed, declaring GAs at Brown to be primarily students. Now the Obama Board is revisiting the issue yet again:

Board grants review, invites briefs on question of graduate student assistant status in two cases

June 22, 2012

Contact:
Office of Public Affairs
202-273-1991
publicinfo@nlrb.gov
www.nlrb.gov

The National Labor Relations Board has granted review in two cases that ask whether graduate student assistants seeking to be represented by a union are employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act.

The Board also has invited briefs from interested parties in the cases: New YorkUniversity, Case 2-RC-23481; and Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Case 29-RC-12054. In its invitation, the Board listed four questions to be addressed, including whether the Board should modify or overrule the 2004 decision in Brown University, which held that graduate student assistants are generally not statutory employees. The Brown decision itself overruled the 2000 decision in New York University, which held that the assistants are employees.

Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce and Members Richard Griffin and Sharon Block ruled in favor of granting review in the cases, while Member Brian Hayes dissented.

Briefs should be no longer than 50 pages and must be filed by July 23 2012.