The enforcement of a controversial regulation passed by the National Labor Relations Board has been postponed by a federal court. This means that employers in Mercer County, New Jersey will not have to post a notice indicating employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act, a recently passed bill that ensures the rights of employees across the nation.

Companies both large and small would have been required to put up a poster created by the NLRB no later than Jan. 31, 2012. But a legal challenge to the requirement by the National Association of Manufacturers has forced the NLRB to push the enforcement date back to April 30 of next year. The three-month postponement should be enough time for the challenge to be settled. If the regulation holds up in court, it will help inform more of the workforce of its legal rights to perform certain actions.

Some of the information on the 11-by-17-inch flier brings attention to the rights of every employee under the NLRA to unionize. Also stated are the rights to discuss wages and benefits with co-workers, bargain collectively, strike and picket, attempt to improve working conditions and choose not to unionize. Many employees are unaware that the recent passing of the NLRA ensures these rights under federal law.

Other information on the NLRB-required flier says that it is illegal for union representatives to threaten employees in order to gain unionization support and for employers to disallow their employees from forming a union or distributing literature on the topic, as long as it is not while the distributor is working and it does not occur in a working area.

A phone number is listed on the poster that allows employees to report any infractions committed by employers or unions to the NLRB.

Source: The Washington Times, “NLRB delays rule on workplace posters on employees’ rights,” Tim Devaney, Dec. 23, 2011