26 Year Old Millennial Fired After Complaining about Pay: What About the NLRA?

On February 19, 2016, user “talia jane” posted “An Open Letter to my CEO” on Medium. https://medium.com/@taliajane/an-open-letter-to-my-ceo-fb73df021e7a#.evani1505 In it, she describes the difficulty of living in the Bay Area on the pay of entry-level employees at Yelp/Eat24. She was fired several hours later.

The backlash was swift; not in support of her, but against her. On February 20, 2016 — the next day — Stefanie Williams also posted a piece on Medium: “An Open Letter to Millennials Like Talia…” https://medium.com/@StefWilliams25/an-open-letter-to-millenials-like-talia-52e9597943aa#.6h05d89wg It was harsh. So harsh, it inspired 36 year-old Sara Lynn Michener to post an article not-so-subtly titled: “36 year-old DESTROYS 29-year-old millennial who ‘ripped’ 25-year-old Yelp employee who got fired after complaining about her salary.” https://medium.com/listen-to-my-story/36-year-old-destroys-29-year-old-millennial-who-ripped-25-year-old-yelp-employee-who-got-fired-aa91972dedff#.j71a24k4a

While millennial bashing seems to be en vogue these days, and the media is piling onto the bandwagon, so far no one is asking “what about the NLRA?”

The National Labor Relations Act, was enacted in 1935 “to protect the rights of employees and employers, to encourage collective bargaining, and to curtail certain private sector labor and management practices, which can harm the general welfare of workers, businesses and the U.S. economy.”

What does the Act have to do with this millennial’s termination from Yelp? Well, Section 7 of the Act provides that employees shall have the right to engage in (certain) union activity “and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of . . . mutual aid or protection.” Section 8 provides that it is an unfair labor practice “to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in section 7.”

So, this begs the question: was “talia jane” terminated for engaging in concerted activity for discussing her wages? Well, all the badmouthing about her audacity to complain about her wages aside, it sure looks that way. And, complaining about your wages is a long-established and tested American right. See, for example, the following three National Labor Relations Board decisions, which are representative of Board decisions on the subject:

In 1980, the Board found that Texas Instruments employees who distributed leaflets with company wage survey information, in violation of company policy, had been acting within their rights and that the company rule prohibiting employees from discussing its own wage schedules with nonemployees substantially interfered with the employees’ organizational efforts. Texas Instruments and Int’l Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, AFL-CIO, 247 N.L.R.B. 34 (1980).

In 1989, Brookshire Grocery employee Mark Moise noticed several sheets containing wage increase information in a supervisor’s office. Moise did not commit trespass to access the payroll information, which was kept in a location that he routinely entered as part of the normal course of his duties. He copied the wage information concerning each employee and then shared the information with several employees. He was terminated by his employer, but the Board ruled that the employer could not prohibit employees from discussing wages. They also found that the interrogation of several employees about the incident violated Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA by interfering with, restraining, or coercing “employees in the exercise of right guaranteed by the NLRA.” Brookshire Grocery and Mark Moise, 294 N.L.R.B. 34 (1989).

In 1990, the Board found that an employer violated the NLRA by distributing and enforcing a company policy forbidding all wage discussions. To take “affirmative action” (i.e. remedy the situation) the company had to revise its policy and post notice to at each of its locations. Serv. Merch. Co., Inc. and Priscilla Jones, 299 N.L.R.B. 160 (1990).

So while everyone jumps on “talia jane” as yet another example of a narcissistic and entitled millennial, this author suggests that she ignore the noise, and consider taking a trip down to her local National Labor Relations Board office.

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Jack Risemberg is labor and employment attorney in Los Angeles, and a partner at RGLawyers, LLP. He can be reached at jr@rglawyers.com, or via the web at www.rglawyers.com

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem.