Dinsmore’s Mark Carter Says Apologies Fall Short in Labor Law Violations
Dinsmore labor partner Mark Carter recently spoke with Law360 for an article about National Labor Relations Board prosecutors following general counsel Jennifer Abbruzzo’s advice to pursue other solutions to address labor law violations, including making employers acknowledge wrongdoing. Carter said an apology is not adequate. An excerpt is below.
Mark Carter, a partner at management-side Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, said apology letters may get a chilly reception in court because they're not a "make-whole" remedy. In a seminal labor law case known as Republic Steel v. National Labor Relations Board, the U.S. Supreme Court said the NLRB may not punish violators and is instead limited to remedies that make victims whole by undoing the consequences of unfair labor practices. Apology letters cross this line, Carter said.
"The apology is not going to address the unfair labor practice committed by the employer and restore … the parties to the status quo as it existed before the unfair labor practices," Carter said.
Carter added that courts may see apology letters as analogous to the more-tested remedy of requiring employer agents to read notices aloud to workers in particularly egregious cases, which circuit courts have questioned.
Read the full article here.
