Towards Justice Attorney Valerie Collins will be presenting at this event on Saturday, November 13.

Revisiting the Scope of “Protected” Activity

In the recent past the nature of work has dramatically changed – both with respect to working conditions, e.g., working from home, as well as regarding the scope of issues that employees believe impact their working conditions, including those that have historically been characterized as “political speech.” Is wearing a mask with a social or humanitarian message “Black Lives Matter” protected activity? Does organizing a walk-out to protest an employer’s use of employees’ labor to support activities that the employees believe to be unethical and which may impact their working conditions constitute protected activity? Should employees’ conduct of organizing around their employer’s expenditure of funds to support or reject matters of social concern be considered “protected” under the NLRA? Not only are employees rethinking what constitutes “workplace concerns,” employers, too, are increasingly engaging in “speech” that employees may perceive as impacting their working conditions. The panel will address whether humanitarian or social justice issues should be protected under the NLRA.