Labor Pains Employees focus groups may seem like a good idea, but they could land you in court.

In the 1990s workplace, business owners and their employeesoften sit at the same table to swap ideas and hammer out ways toimprove quality and efficiency. Instead of maintaining an us/themmentality, employers try to foster teamwork through employee focusgroups and involvement committees, working together to findsolutions to daily business problems. The approach tends to workwell. In fact, the Employment Policy Foundation, a research andeducation organization in Washington, DC, credits quality circlesand employee involvement committees with as much as 70 percent ofthe productivity increase and growth in the U.S. economy in theearly 1990s.

That's the good news. The bad news is the National LaborRelations Board (NLRB) deems some employee focus groups illegalemployer-dominated unions. To the dismay of many human resourcesexperts, federal courts have backed the NLRB's position.Indeed, in a 1996 case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that courtsmust defer to the NLRB's interpretation of the law in thisarea. Accordingly, employers who sponsor committees that cross theline into topics and strategies traditionally reserved for unionsmay have to answer for their actions in court--and be forced todisband their committees.

While business owners are trying to build teamwork and drawdiverse managers and employees together, labor unions are generallyopposed to blurring the distinction. Across the board, unionleaders envision employees being dominated by their employers andlosing ground gained through decades of collective bargaining.Accordingly, unions turn to the NLRB and, eventually, to the courtsto enforce Section 8(a)(2) of the 1937 National Labor Relations Act(NLRA), which prohibits employer-dominated labor organizations.