Watch Out—D.C. Circuit Weighs Hidden Camera Case (this effects everybody)

[Omaha Steve]

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2008/11/watch-outdc-circuit-weighs-hidden-camera-case.html

November 12, 2008

Sixteen employees of Anheuser-Busch were unfairly reprimanded—five workers were fired—after the beer-maker unlawfully installed hidden cameras without first bargaining with the union, a lawyer for the union argued today in a federal appeals court.

Anheuser-Busch officials had grown suspicious after finding mattress-sized pieces of foam, chairs, and pieces of cardboard in an upper-floor room of a brewery in St. Louis. Two hidden surveillance cameras were set up and, over the next several months, captured 16 employees violating policy. Some were caught smoking marijuana. Others were sleeping on the job. Some were urinating on the roof.

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451d94869e2010535ea895c970b-320pi

Anheuser-Busch fired five and reprimanded the other 11. The union representing the employees, Brewers and Maltsters, Local No. 6, which is affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, fought the reprimand and termination because Anheuser-Busch had installed the cameras without first bargaining with the union. The National Labor Relations Board said the installation of the cameras was an unfair labor practice. The D.C. Circuit in 2005 affirmed that decision. But last year, the NLRB refused in a 3-2 decision to order the company to reinstate the employees.

Arthur Martin, a lawyer for the union, argued today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that the NLRB is obliged to order Anheuser-Busch to reinstate the fired employees and that the board improperly dismissed precedent in refusing to “make whole” the 16 employees who were reprimanded or fired. “The board flips the law on us, tossing it out the window,” Martin said. Hearing the case were Judges David Tatel, Brett Kavanaugh, and Laurence Silberman.

FULL story at link.