Opinion ID: 402425
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Amendment to the complaint

Text: 28 Section 10(b) provides that an action must be brought within six months of the events the subject of the complaint, but permits an ALJ, in the exercise of his discretion, to allow amendment of a complaint during the proceedings. 29 U.S.C. § 160(b). Amendments closely related to the original charges are deemed filed at the time the original complaint issued. See NLRB v. Fant Milling Co., 360 U.S. 301, 79 S.Ct. 1179, 3 L.Ed.2d 1243 (1959); NLRB v. Jack La Lanne Management Corp., 539 F.2d 292, 295 and n.1 (2d Cir. 1976). In this case, the original complaint had been filed February 5, 1979. On the second day of the hearing, the ALJ permitted the General Counsel to amend the complaint to charge that R. M. Tanaka, in October of 1978, unlawfully coerced employees to sign an agreement that the company was nonunion. Had the ALJ refused to allow the amendment, the new charge would have been time-barred. We find that the additional allegation was related to the same series of allegedly unfair labor practices designed to keep R. M. Tanaka nonunion. See NLRB v. Jack La Lanne Management Corp., 539 F.2d at 295. The grant of the amendment was within the ALJ's discretion. Thus there was no violation of R. M. Tanaka's procedural due process rights.