In a ruling that will surely have effects at college campuses across the country, the National Labor Relations Board ruled in a 3-1 decision that graduate students who provide research or teaching services at universities are employees, and as employees that are entitled to participate in collective bargaining. This ruling has the potential to open multiple areas and protections of traditional employment law to university graduate research students and teaching assistants.The NLRB decision came out of efforts by the United Auto Workers Union to organize and represent graduate students at Columbia University. The NLRB had previously ruled that university students are not employees and, accordingly, they are not covered by the National Labor Relations Act. This most recent ruling reversed an earlier decision that, in the NLRB's words, "deprived an entire category of workers of the protections of the Act, without a convincing justification in either the statutory language or the policies of the Act."The initial reaction to this decision will be outreach efforts by existing labor unions to include graduate students in their organizations and formation of new unions with requests for union recognition by other students. Universities that have been struggling to control costs will need to develop strategies to respond to these efforts. Most colleges and universities at least publicly profess to support organized labor. It remains to be seen whether that support will continue in the face of unionization efforts that directly affect university administrations and budgets.Columbia University is deciding whether to appeal this ruling in federal court. In the interim, university graduate students who face employment discrimination or disputes over wages or overtime may have a new opportunity and ability to resolve those disputes. The attorneys at Jachimowicz, Pointer & Emanuel take pride in helping employees to protect their rights. If you believe that your employer has improperly deprived you of salary or other compensation, please contact us to schedule a consultation to determine how we can help you.
