Ford Motor Company V. NLRB (1979)

In the example provided, the main issue is the privacy of employees. The company has installed hidden surveillance cameras in a bathroom and the camera was found by an employee. The employer stated that it was placed there because the area had become a high theft area and they wanted to patrol the space in an effort to reduce the crime within the workplace. After further investigation, more cameras were located in the employees’ physical fitness room. The use of workplace surveillance videos are becoming more common, but the employees still have a right to privacy. “Courts have usually ruled in favor of employers using surveillance cameras, as long as the cameras are not placed in areas where employees do have an expectation of privacy” (Harty-Golder,

NLRB (1979). In this case, “the Supreme Court indicated that mandatory subjects for collective bargaining included those issues which are “plainly germane to the ‘working environment’” and “not among those “managerial decisions, which lie at the core of entrepreneurial control’” (Peterson & Boller, 2005, p. 58). Also, “mandatory subjects of bargaining are meant to be discussed and negotiated among the employer and employee; some examples of these subjects are rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, or other conditions of employment” (McManemin, 1962, p. 985). The employees have a right to voice his/ her opinion about their working conditions to their employer and should be allowed to bargain in good faith with their employer. The NLRA stated in Section 8 that if an employer refused to bargain with the employees over any mandatory bargaining issue, that it was considered to be an unfair labor practice (McManemin, 1962). Therefore, the employees have a right, as stated in the NLRA, to bring forth issues that are affecting their work environment and the employer must show they are willing to listen and bargain collectively with the