NLRB approves $2.5 million settlement in Connecticut striker replacement case

http://hr.cch.com/news/employment/041210a.asp

NLRB General Counsel Ronald Meisburg has approved a compliance settlement providing $2.55 million in back pay, interest and pension credits to 133 current and former employees of Church Homes, Inc, a nursing home and extended care facility in Hartford, Connecticut. The settlement, which Meisburg announced April 8, 2010, brings an end to a decade-long dispute involving Church Homes’ failure to reinstate workers who offered unconditionally to return to work. The case is significant, according to the agency, because it is the first time the NLRB has decided whether an employer may replace striking employees “secretly” without providing the union an opportunity to consider ending a strike or changing tactics.

The case dates back to November 1999, when employees represented by District 1199 of the New England Health Care Employees Union began a strike against Church Homes. The nursing home hired permanent replacements but did not advise the union until more than half of the strikers had been replaced. After an investigation, the NLRB Regional Office in Hartford argued that the hiring of replacements in secret was meant to punish the strikers and dilute support for the union, in violation of the NLRA. A series of rulings and appeals followed: The NLRB reversed an administrative law judge ruling in favor of the union in 2004. In turn, the Second Circuit vacated the NLRB’s findings and remanded the case to the Board for further consideration. In June of 2007, the NLRB issued a supplemental decision in which it concluded that Church Homes had unlawfully failed to reinstate the striking employees. The Second Circuit sustained the Board’s supplemental ruling in December 2008. In October 2009, the Supreme Court refused to hear the nursing home’s appeal.

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