NLRB to file complaint against Reuters if no agreement reached soon

Federal authorities will issue a complaint against Thomson Reuters on April 29, unless management settles its 30 month-old contract dispute with the Newspaper Guild or resolves the multiple allegations it faces before then.

In a letter to Guild and company lawyers on April 13, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said it would hold off on issuing a complaint on charges that include unlawfully implementing pay and benefit cuts until after Guild and management negotiators meet in an already scheduled April 26 bargaining session with a federal mediator.

“However, if no settlement of the contract dispute is reached or if the Employer has not agreed to enter into an informal settlement with the (NLRB) by April 28, 2011, the complaint in this case will issue on April 29, 2011 in order to avoid further delays in the processing of this case,” Manhattan acting Regional NLRB Director Karen Fernbach said in her letter to the parties.

The NLRB also notified the Guild and management that it plans to add three more allegations to its complaint, namely that management illegally changed the health care and the 401(k) plans and that it illegally applied a code of conduct to Guild-covered employees that was never negotiated with the union, unlike the negotiated code that it is cited in the “red book” contract. The agency is still considering other Guild charges.

On April 6, the NLRB told both sides it intends to issue a complaint – similar to an indictment – against Thomson Reuters with numerous allegations of wrongdoing that include management’s Jan. 19, 2010 impasse declaration in contract talks, unilaterally imposing rules that cut pay and benefits, replacing collective bargaining with a management-controlled compensation system and restricting employees’ rights to use Twitter to communicate with co-workers about working conditions.

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