Palma v. NLRB | Workers’ Rights

Palma, et al. v. National Labor Relations Board

A case whose main issue is whether the decision in Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB prevents the NLRB from awarding back pay to unauthorized workers who never presented false documents and were wrongfully fired, in violation of the National Labor Relations Act, for asserting workplace rights. (Before the NLRB, the case is known as Mezonos Maven Bakery, Inc. and Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, 29-CA-25476.)


Briefs, Memos, and Orders Filed with/Issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (from latest to earliest):


Mezonos Maven Bakery, Inc., and LatinoJustice PRLDEF, Case 29-CA-025476

Decision and Order Issued by the National Labor Relations Board:

  • Second Supplemental Decision and Order (3/27/15, PDF)
    “This case is on remand from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The sole question is whether the Board should order the conditional reinstatement of employees who, at the time they were unlawfully discharged by the Respondent, lacked proper documentation to work in the United States….
    “[T]he Board has decided that a conditional reinstatement order is appropriate in this case.”

BACKGROUND

National Immigration Law Center and AFL-CIO Seek to Restore Rights for Wrongly Fired Immigrant Workers

The National Immigration Law Center and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to review a National Labor Relations Board decision denying back pay for workers who were fired after complaining about unfair working conditions at Mezonos Maven Bakery in Brooklyn, New York.

(NILC news release, March 28, 2012)


Employer That Knowingly Violated I-9 Requirement Ordered to Pay “Back Pay”

An administrative law judge in New York has ordered a back pay award to seven workers who had been fired by their employer, Mezonos Maven Bakery, for engaging in concerted activity by complaining together about their supervisor’s behavior towards them. Some of the seven workers had been employed by Mezonos for nearly 10 years. During this time, the employer had not asked some of them to provide employment authorization documents and had never completed I-9 employment eligibility verification forms for any of them.

(From Immigrants’ Rights Update, Vol. 21, Issue 6, July 20, 2007, revised June 12, 2008)