Opinion ID: 2810515
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: An Additional Remedy Issue

Text: Sustaining the General Counsel’s appeal of a third issue, the Board ordered that, in reinstating the wrongfully terminated employees with backpay, Greater Omaha must reimburse them “an amount equal to the difference in taxes owed upon receipt of a lump-sum backpay payment and taxes that would have been owed had there been no discrimination against them” and “[s]ubmit the appropriate documentation to the Social Security Administration so that when backpay is paid . . . it will be allocated to the appropriate periods.” Greater Omaha argues that these new remedies are invalid because the case in which the Board initially adopted them was decided by a panel that lacked a quorum because two members were invalid recess appointments. See Noel Canning v. NLRB, 705 F.3d 490 (D.C. Cir. 2013), aff’d, 134 S. Ct. 2550 (2014). This contention is without merit. The current Board regained a full quorum of five Senate-confirmed members in August 2013 and has since reaffirmed and explained its new remedial policy. See Don Chavas, LLC, 361 N.L.R.B. No. 10, at -6 (Aug. 8, 2014). The panel that ordered the remedies in this case was properly constituted and exercised the Board’s “broad discretion to fashion appropriate to respond was illogical. -14- [backpay] remedies once an unfair labor practice is established.” NLRB v. J.S. Alberici Const. Co., 591 F.2d 463, 468 (8th Cir. 1979). As Greater Omaha does not attack the merits of applying the new remedies in this case, they must be enforced. We need not consider whether the Board’s apparent adoption of a rigid policy imposing these requirements in every case where backpay is ordered might in some cases impose a burden so unreasonable or unnecessary that it abuses the discretion “given it by Congress to attain just results in diverse, complicated situations.” Phelps Dodge Corp. v. NLRB, 313 U.S. 177, 198 (1941).