Tyrant Joe Biden's Tyrant NLRB Stone Cold Arresting Salon Owners Now Just For Defying Judges' Orders
Dang.
In practically every country in the world, an employer is required to prove “just cause” when firing someone. Not so in the United States (except for Montana)! Generally speaking, an employer is free to fire people for any reason or for no reason at all, so there is no reason to require them to prove that they aren’t doing anything shady. There are a few exceptions to this, at least for companies with more than 14 employees (federally, though the threshold is lower in some states). They can’t fire people for discriminatory reasons, they can’t fire people for unionizing or attempting to unionize, and they can’t fire people for complaining about safety hazards.
In most cases, employers think they can count on getting away with it because the people dealing with those particular issues rarely have the time and money to get a lawsuit going. That is likely what one couple thought was going to happen when they fired an employee from their salon for complaining about a lack of safety measures at the height of the COVID pandemic.
But this time … it didn’t quite work out that way.
Timothy and Carley Dillett, owners of Haven Salon + Spa in Muskego, Wisconsin, were taken into custody by US Marshals this week for failing to comply with court-enforced orders from the National Labor Relations Board to correct the situation.
At a hearing that the Dilletts refused to attend back in September of 2021, an administrative law judge found that they had unlawfully terminated the employee and ordered them “to compensate the employee for lost pay and expenses, offer reinstatement, notify the employee that it had removed references of her unlawful termination from the employee file, post notices of employee rights in its store locations, and file a sworn certification with the Board attesting to its compliance.”
The Dilletts refused to comply with the orders and were charged with contempt for doing so in February of 2023. The court then assigned them escalating daily fees for noncompliance, which they also summarily ignored. Apparently they thought it was all very optional!
Clearly, they were all just too busy becoming certified in “Aqua Extensions” (tape-in hair extensions using real human hair) to bother!
The “Our Story” page on Haven Salon + Spa’s website reads “when you choose Haven Salon + Spa and Aveda know that you are always giving back to the community and environment.” Perhaps they should have been more specific with that, as most people would not automatically assume that the thing they were giving back to the community was COVID.
After being taken into custody, the Dilletts were brought before a magistrate judge where they were ordered to pay the $30,000 in fines they owe plus attorneys fees and agreed to “promptly” comply with the court’s orders.
“I applaud Agency staff and the Seventh Circuit for their efforts to seek compliance with the Board’s order,” NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said in a statement. “This case demonstrates the Agency’s vigorous pursuit of justice. Employers should be on notice that they can face steep consequences if they continue to skirt the law, including being taken into custody until they comply. Violators of the Act should promptly comply with Board orders in order to quickly remedy their unlawful activities and dissipate the adverse effects that they had upon workers.”
Clearly, the NLRB is not fucking around anymore and is willing to go balls to the wall enforcing the few meager labor protections we have in this country — and employers hoping to fire people for illegal reasons should probably be a little nervous.
I wasted many hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars having my hair colored. Then we had Covid and I stopped and my hair grew in pretty much the exact color I was having it dyed. Jokes on me, I guess.
Sometimes capitalism punishment is called for.