A rule slated to take effect April 30, 2012, that would force most U.S. employers to post a notice of employees' rights under labor law has been blocked by a federal circuit court on the heels of a federal district court's determination that the issuing agency lacked authority to approve the rule.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) lacked the authority to issue a notice-posting rule, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina ruled on April 13, 2012. That decision was followed on April 17, 2012, by the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia granting an emergency injunction pending the appeal of a prior D.C. district court ruling that the NLRB had the authority to issue the rule.
In the D.C. Circuit court's two-page decision it noted that "the board postponed operation of the rule during the pendency of the district court proceedings in order to give the district court an opportunity to consider the legal merits before the rule took effect. That postponement is in some tension with the board's current argument that the rule should take effect during the pendency of this court's proceedings before this court has an opportunity to similarly consider the legal merits."