G4S Regulated Security Solutio v. National Labor Relations Board

Filing

Opinion issued by court as to Petitioner-Cross Respondent G4S Regulated Security Solutions. Decision: Affirmed. Opinion type: Non-Published. Opinion method: Per Curiam. The opinion is also available through the Court's Opinions page at this link http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions. (15-14018X)

Case: 15-13224

Date Filed: 11/21/2016

Page: 1 of 3

[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________
No. 15-13224
________________________
Agency No. 12-CA-026644

G4S REGULATED SECURITY SOLUTIONS,
A Division of G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc.,
f.k.a. The Wackenhut Corporation,
Petitioner - Cross Respondent,
versus
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD,
Respondent - Cross Petitioner.
________________________
Petitions for Review of a Decision of the
National Labor Relations Board
________________________
(November 21, 2016)

Case: 15-13224

Date Filed: 11/21/2016

Page: 2 of 3

Before TJOFLAT and HULL, Circuit Judges, and BYRON, * District Judge.
PER CURIAM:
Appellant G4S Regulated Security Solutions (“G4S”) appeals from the order
of the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”). On charges filed by two
former G4S employees, the Board’s General Counsel issued a complaint against
G4S. The complaint alleged that G4S suspended and discharged the two former
employees for engaging in “protected concerted activities,” in violation of section
8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”), 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1). The
two former employees are Thomas Frazier and Cecil Mack.
The Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) conducted a three-day hearing,
reviewed the parties’s briefing, and issued a sixteen-page Decision. The ALJ
dismissed the complaint, finding that the employees were “statutory supervisors”
under section 2(11) of the Act and not entitled to the Act’s protection.
The Board’s General Counsel filed an administrative appeal, and on
September 28, 2012, a panel of the Board reversed the ALJ. The panel held that the
former employees were not statutory supervisors and remanded to determine
whether G4S had unlawfully suspended and discharged them in retaliation for
engaging in their protected activity. On remand, the ALJ issued a November 16,
2012 Supplemental Decision, finding that G4S had done so, in violation of the Act.
*

Honorable Paul G. Byron, United States District Judge, for the Middle
District of Florida, sitting by designation.
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Case: 15-13224

Date Filed: 11/21/2016

Page: 3 of 3

G4S then appealed this Supplemental Decision. On April 30, 2013, a panel
of the Board affirmed.
On June 26, 2014, the United States Supreme Court, in NLRB v. Noel
Canning, 134 S. Ct. 2550 (2014), invalidated President Obama’s recess
appointments for two of the appellate panel Board members in this case. Following
Noel Canning, the Board set aside its September 28, 2012 and April 30, 2013
Board decisions. A panel consisting of new Board members was then created, and
it reviewed de novo the ALJ’s Decision and Supplemental Decision. In a June 25,
2015 Decision and Order, the new Board panel affirmed the ALJ’s findings that
the former employees were protected by the Act and that G4S had violated the Act
in discharging the former employees.
G4S filed a petition for review of the June 25, 2015 Board Decision and
Order in this Court. On August 27, 2015, the Board filed a cross-petition for
enforcement.
After review of the record and with the benefit of oral argument, the Court
concludes that substantial evidence supports the Board’s findings of fact and that
there was no reversible error in the Board’s conclusions of law. We accordingly
deny G4S’s petition for review, grant the Board’s cross-petition for enforcement,
and affirm the order of the Board.
AFFIRMED.
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