Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
Minteq International, Inc. supplies materials to steel-makers. Minteq’s employees are represented by the engineers’ union of the AFL-CIO and covered by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). In 2012, without bargaining or even notifying the union, the company began requiring new employees to sign noncompete and confidentiality agreements (NCCA) which barred employees from working for Minteq’s competitors for 18 months following their employment and disclosing confidential or proprietary information. They also included nonsolicitation and at-will employment clauses.
In 2014, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Minteq. The National Labor Relations Board found that Minteq violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by failing to afford the employees’ union notice or an opportunity to bargain over Minteq’s unilateral implementation of the NCCA. In a recent ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the Board’s findings (Minteq International Inc., et al., v. Nat’l Labor Relations Board, No. 16-1276 (D.C. Cir. 2017)).
NLRB held that the noncompete agreement was a mandatory subject of bargaining not covered by the CBA. FLSA requires parties to bargain in good faith regarding “wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.” As such, Minteq’s noncompete/confidentiality agreement was a mandatory subject of bargaining because it directly “settle[s] an aspect of the relationship between the employer and the employees.” (First Nat’l Maint. Corp. v. NLRB, 452 U.S. 666 (1981)). Continue reading ›