T-Mobile Operated an Illegal Company Union And Must Dissolve It, D.C. Circuit Agrees With NLRB

January 23, 2024

What's New

Wireless telecommunications carrier T-Mobile established an illegal company union that must be dissolved, an appeals court panel ruled January 12 in T-Mobile USA v. NLRB. T-Voice, a worker feedback program created by T-Mobile, fit the definition of a labor organization under the National Labor Relations Act, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held. The panel ruled 2 to 1 that T-Mobile violated the NLRA by dominating the organization and upheld an order from the NLRB that the company must abolish T-Voice.

The panel noted that T-Mobile paid selected employees to serve as T-Voice representatives to relay employees’ feedback about their job duties and customers’ complaints to management. The D.C. Circuit rejected T-Mobile’s argument that T-Voice was not a labor organization because the representative actions constituted only a small percentage of the issues that T-Voice submitted to management.

What It Means

This ruling could make it more difficult for companies to maintain employer-funded resource and affinity groups for employees—including diversity networks, employee resource groups, and business groups.

What You Should Do

Employers should review the charters of any employee groups that they sponsor to ensure that they cannot be construed as a company union. E should pay particular attention to any framework through which the groups could be seen as representing their members to management. CWC members may find it useful to discuss this topic with other members in a Conversation Corner or through the Compliance Network in Collaborate.

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