NLRB Remedies: “Draconian” Says the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Thryv

Labor Law Insider host Tom Godar engages in a lively discussion with guests Trecia Moore, Megann McManus, and Terry Potter regarding remedies in matters involving unfair labor practice charges. The centerpiece of our discussion is Thryv, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, a recent case in which the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals took up questions relating to a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) order that sought to challenge and reverse a company’s unilateral layoffs during a bargaining impasse. The employer, a Yellow Pages advertising vendor, had properly and legally implemented its Last Best Final Offer (LBFO) protocols and instituted its workforce reduction per the LBFO, but the union charged it with unfair labor practices before the NLRB anyway. What ensued next was unusual, even for the Biden administration’s NLRB. The Board overruled its own administrative law judge (ALJ) when the ALJ returned only a partial victory in the Board’s in-house venue and slapped Thryv with what the circuit court later called “a novel, consequential-damages-like labor law remedy.”We explore what made the Board’s order noteworthy, why the circuit court ultimately dismantled most of it, and the likely future for so-called make-whole remedies.