Referral Business Model Can Be a First Defense to Union Organizing

Businesses often rely on multiple strategies and approaches for maintaining union‐free status. Correctly so, as such strategies are a primary means of achieving business objectives. However, employers sometimes overlook narrow but significant aspects of the National Labor Relations Act. For example, the Act protects the actions of “employees.” What if, in forming and operating your business, you avoided having certain individuals come within the definition of an “employee”? The recent decision in Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc ., 370 NLRB No. 18 (2020), provides an illustrative example of the importance of one's business model in preventing union organizing issues.