The legality of employee participation programs after the NLRB's Electromation Inc. decision

Abstract

American businesses, faced with diverse competitive forces, have adopted an array of different quality improvement efforts to enhance their competitive standing in our work economy, "total quality management" is team centered. "Quality circles" are employee participation groups whose purpose is to utilize employee expertise in examining operational problems such as work quality, labor efficiency, and material waste. Other teams or committees utilized by business are sometimes called "quality of work-life programs," by business whereby management draws on the creativity of its employees by including them in decisions that affect their work life. In its Electromation, Inc. decision, the National Labor Relations Board considered whether an employer was free to establish certain "action committees," in order to improve quality and efficiency, or whether these constituted labor organizations dominated by the company, and assisted in violating the National Labor Relations Act. The Board rendered a narrow decision on the legality of employee participation programs, providing some guidance to employers which allows for such programs, within certain parameters. The article discusses the criteria for determining whether an employee participation program violated the Act in the context of the Electromation decision.