Protected Concerted Activity

Unfair labor practices may involve union-related situations or instances of protected concerted activity.

In countries where there is relatively robust employee dismissal protection, the protection of protected concerted activity is less of a distinct legal issue.

Protected Concerted Activity is a legal term used in labor policy to define employee protection against employer retaliation in the United States.

The union charged that the leagues threatened umpires with the loss of their jobs or loss of their benefits "because they engaged in protected concerted activity."

In liberal market societies like the United States, where it is comparatively easy for an employer to fire an employee, the issue of protected concerted activity has become an important employment protection.

At times, protected concerted activity has extended to individual employees, like for example when an employee speaks individually to his or her employer on behalf of him or herself and one or more co-workers about improving workplace conditions.

Generally speaking, there is protected concerted activity when two or more employees act together to improve their terms and conditions of employment, although it is (on rare occasions) possible for conduct to be so egregious that it becomes unprotected.

The National Labor Relations Act protects workers from being fired for "protected concerted activity," which prevents workers from being fired for collective action, while allowing companies the right to fire workers for individual actions they take against the company.

This includes freedom of association, mutual aid or protection, self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively for wages and working conditions through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other protected concerted activities with or without a union.