NLRB Judge Says Kaiser Broke the Law, Orders Company to Pay Raises and Backpay
In a “clear as day” ruling, an Administrative Law Judge announced this week that Kaiser Permanente broke the law by withholding raises and benefits from Southern California NUHW members. The judge ordered Kaiser to pay all wages and benefits due to Kaiser Southern California Pros and RNs who belong to NUHW, including back pay, with interest.
While Kaiser has a 28-day window to appeal the decision, the judge’s ruling was clear and decisive. Nothing could be clearer proof that SEIU lied when they told 43,500 Kaiser workers that they would lose their raises and benefits if they voted to join NUHW.
In the plainest of rebukes, Judge William Schmidt referred to the “massive damage done” to workers’ rights by Kaiser, characterized the company’s justification for its actions as “lack(ing) merit” and “without legal foundation,” and called its cited legal precedents “misplaced.” Judge Schmidt ordered Kaiser to “immediately restore and apply” the scheduled wage increases plus interest, tuition reimbursement benefit, and steward training benefit provided under the workers’ prior union contract.
Judge Schmidt further admonished Kaiser for its reckless abuse of the legal process, describing the company as belonging to a class of “non-compliant respondents who choose to appeal and appeal in order to avoid their duty to bargain under the Act until, finally, support for the employee representative is totally dissipated.”