Judge: Hyundai plant must rehire workers
The Hyundai assembly plant in Montgomery violated the rights of three workers when it fired them last year after a Christmas-season work schedule dispute, according to a ruling by a National Labor Relations Board judge.
Paint shop employees Nathan Howard, Justin Cleckler and Nathan Yarbrough engaged in “protected concerted activity” when they left the job at the same time on Dec. 22, 2015, Administrative Law Judge Arthur Amchan ruled this week. Amchan also found that Team Relations Specialist Gregory Gomez “unlawfully interrogated” the workers after the walkout.
Read it here: Judge's decision in Hyundai matter
The judge ruled that Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama must rehire the workers, give them backpay with interest and post a notice at the plant stating they won’t interfere with protected worker activity. The ruling can be appealed to the NLRB in Washington, with the judge’s decision considered as a recommendation.
HMMA said it plans to appeal and that it "respectfully disagrees" with the judge's decision. Attorneys involved in the case didn't immediately return messages seeking comment.
According to federal documents, the dispute was over a change to the work schedule for robot maintenance teams just before the 2015 Christmas-season shutdown. The three workers were part of a team that was scheduled to work from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Dec. 22.
Two days before the shift, a supervisor allegedly told the team members – including Howard, Cleckler and Yarbrough – that they would instead work from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., even though the posted schedule wasn’t changed. At 2 p.m. on Dec. 22, the three workers clocked out and left the plant.
The next day, filings state that Gomez interviewed the three employees separately and asked them identical questions, including whether they talked with each other before leaving. Amchan ruled that the circumstances of those interviews and the questions asked were “coercive” and violated labor law.
The three employees continued to work at the plant until the following month.
On Jan. 11, 2016, they were given identical termination letters that said they voluntarily resigned when they left early on Dec. 22, according to federal filings. Amchan rejected the notion that the workers resigned, noting that under those guidelines “any protected strike constitutes a voluntary resignation.”
However, Amchan also rejected an allegation by Howard that a supervisor warned him not to say the word “union.” In his ruling, Amchan called that complaint “very contrived” and dismissed it.
The decision gives HMMA two weeks from the date of the NLRB’s final order to offer the workers new jobs, pay them for lost wages and other expenses and post and distribute a notice. That notice says that the NLRB “has found that we violated Federal labor law,” notifies workers of their right to join unions, act together with other employees, and engage in other protected activities without interference from the company.
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