By Nicholas R. Clements

The National Labor Relations Board announced today that it has temporarily suspended the implementation of its final rule pertaining to new election procedures, i.e., the “Ambush Election” rule, effective immediately.  Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon similarly announced that he has temporarily suspended his guidance memorandum concerning the new election procedures.  As our blog post “Federal Court Invalidates NLRB’s ‘Ambush Election’ Rule” discussed, a U.S. District Court invalidated the rule that had taken effect April 30 in a decision released yesterday.  (For additional information on the rule, see our blog post “NLRB ‘Ambush Election’ Rules Clear First Hurdle.”)

Election petitions filed when the rule was in effect will have the option to continue processing their cases under the suspended rule or to reinitiate their cases under the prior procedures.  NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce, for his part and in a press release today by the NLRB Office of Public Affairs, indicated the NLRB is still “determined to move forward” with the implementation of the rule in the future.