Venable partner Ron Taylor was quoted in a May 23, 2017, article in The Daily Record on a recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling allowing college resident assistants (RAs) to unionize. College RAs are typically upperclassmen overseeing dorms of undergraduates, enforcing university rules, and resolving disputes between residents in exchange for the university covering their room and board and possibly a small stipend. In its ruling, the NLRB said college RAs meet the "appropriate legal standard" established in a previous case by college teaching assistants seeking to unionize.
"I think the board focused on an aspect of the relationship without actually focusing on whether the parties thought they had an employer-employee relationship," said Taylor. "I think it's far more complicated than this board has agreed and their reasoning is result-oriented." He added that the ruling could be "an additional headache" for colleges, saying, "We haven't seen enough of it to see if it's going to be hugely problematic but it certainly has the potential to be problematic."