Another Day, Another March: Did This One Impact Your Workforce?

Yesterday was International Workers’ Day and, around the world, there were marches planned to bring attention to both the accomplishments achieved through the efforts of workers and to the hardships experienced by workers (who are we kidding – these marches are mostly about the latter of these objectives). Although the marches were intended to focus generally on workers’ rights, not all of the scheduled marches were intended to bring attention to the same subset of workers. Some participants marched to support immigrant workers and others to support women workers. More than a few participants in the United States joined the march to protest the policies of the current Administration.

The level of any workforce’s participation in the march for International Workers’ Day directly determines the impact of the event on you as the employer. Clearly, if no one participates then you have no cause for concern, as no one is missing work, no one is violating work rules, and tasks are being completed. However, if your employees did participate, and did so without properly requesting time off, then you have to decide how to respond. If you did not catch either of my blog posts here and here regarding “A Day Without a Woman,” then let this post serve as a refresher on what actions if any, you can take if one or more of your employees missed work to participate in an International Workers’ Day march.

If the employee was not authorized to participate, his refusing to work when scheduled in order to march constitutes a strike. However, even though considered a strike, your employee may be protected if his activity yesterday was considered protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act, i.e. if there was a sufficient nexus between employment-related concerns and the specific issues that were the subject of the march.

When the motivation for political activity is a national political issue that you as the employer have no control over, such activity will not be protected. In such cases, you may choose to discipline an employee for violating your well-established and neutrally applied policies (you have them right?). On the other hand, when your employees withhold services as an economic tool in their employment relationship with you, such activity is protected. If workers are taking action to alter the terms and conditions of their employment and you as their employer have the power to make the changes being sought, such activity will most likely be protected by the National Labor Relations Act, and any action taken against the employee could subject you to liability.

Jennifer Fowler-Hermes
jfowler-hermes@williamsparker.com
941-552-2558