NLRB's Thryv remedies shot down

Back in 2022 the NLRB announced that it will routinely award additional remedies for employees who are unlawfully terminated. This required employer to compensate employees for any direct or foreseeable pecuniary harms incurred as a result of the unlawful adverse actions against them, including reasonable search-for-work and interim employment expenses, if any, regardless of whether these expenses exceed interim earnings. Thryv, Inc, 372 NLRB. No. 22 (2022) [PDF].

Now the 3rd Circuit says this exceeds the NLRB's authority under the NLRA. Starbucks v. NLRB (3rd Circuit 12/27/2024) [PDF].

The court's reasoning was pretty simple. The NLRA allows the NLRB to award equitable relief. This includes reinstatement and back pay. But the statute does not give the NLRB authority to award legal relief.

As the court put it, "While the Board can certainly award some monetary relief to the employees, that relief cannot exceed what the employer unlawfully withheld."

Starbucks raised other arguments that the court did not reach:

* Nondelegation doctrine—that the Board’s reading of the NLRA would transfer Congress’s legislative power to the agency without an intelligible principle to constrain that delegation.

* Due-process.

* Seventh amendment right to a jury trial.

* Right to adjudication in federal court under Article III.