If Oregon Senate Bill 519 (SB 519) passes, certain of the state’s employers will lose their ability to require employee attendance at the organization’s meetings concerning the employer’s opinions on religious or political matters. The bill also prohibits the employer from taking action against an employee who refuses to participate in communication concerning the employer’s opinions on religious or political matters. For those organizations covered by the proposed legislation, “religious or political matters” is defined very broadly and appears to include communications to employees about unionization. The legislation then goes one further step and requires covered organizations to post a notice of employee rights regarding the prohibitions against employers under the bill.
Because the legislation is currently pending, employers are encouraged to immediately contact their state representatives and voice their opinions regarding the effects of SB 519. While a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision found that it was unconstitutional for a similar California law to restrict employer speech in the unionization context, Oregon employers don’t want to rely on the court system should SB 519 pass.
While the bill does create some limited exceptions for religious or political organizations, the potential impact of SB 519 severely hinders the ability of most organizations to communicate directly with their employees. For instance, if a union were attempting to organize an employer, the ability and opportunity for that employer to effectively communicate with employees would be limited to only those employees who wished to attend the meetings. This communication limitation would not only affect conducting meetings, but also other types of written or verbal communication from the organization’s management or supervisors. Giving the employer’s opinion, position or side of the story would be hindered, while the union would continue to have full ability to communicate.
And here is the biggest concern about this, if the organization is limited by the restrictions of SB 519 and then the federal Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is passed, employers may find it is too late to effectively communicate with their employees. Under EFCA, once the union has communicated employees and convinced more than half of the employees to sign authorization cards, the employer could be mandated to recognize the union as the bargaining representative for the employees. This means that the union could gain that status without the organization ever being truly able to present its perspective and position to the employees. Recent surveys suggest that the majority of employers are sitting and watching to see if EFCA passes, with only 10% of employers actively communicating with their workforce. With these to legislative efforts working in tandem, one at the state level and one at the federal, employers could find themselves with no right to talk with their employees about maintaining a direct relationship with them.
The bottom line for organizations is that communication should be taking place now regarding the organization’s perspective on working directly with employees, without the involvement of a union. Rather than risking the potential for restricted or no communications with employees, organizations should be interacting with their employees now on the benefits and value of maintaining that direct relationship between the employer and employees. On March 26th, from 8 AM to 10 AM, HR Answers, Inc. will be presenting a breakfast briefing addressing the potential impact of EFCA and how organizations can take proactive steps and communications now, rather than face an increased risk for union activity. For answers and recommendations, please join us for this critical conversation!
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