Labor watchdog says Grindr used RTO policy to hinder union • The Register

The US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Friday issued a complaint against California-based LGBTQ dating app Grindr alleging the biz's return-to-office order for staff amounted to unfair labor practises.

By demanding folks get back to their office desks, after said workers formed a union, causing scores of them to quit, the software house broke American labor law, it is claimed.

"The complaint alleges that Grindr implemented a return-to-office plan (causing the termination of about 83 employees) because employees joined the union, and engaged in concerted activities, presented employees with an unlawful severance agreement, and failed and refused to recognize and bargain with the union," the labor watchdog declared in a statement.

The complaint follows from the NLRB's investigation of six unfair labor practice charges filed in August, 2023, by Communication Workers of America (CWA) District 9 – a large union that covers California, Nevada, and Hawaii.

According to the CWA, Grindr workers announced a union on July 20, 2023, and Grindr management answered by hiring a law firm with anti-union credentials. The result of that consultation was a return-to-office mandate, announced on August 4, 2023.

"In response, Grindr management hired notorious union-busting Littler Mendelson and quickly established a retaliatory return-to-office (RTO) policy," the union alleged. "The RTO mandate gave workers two weeks to choose between ending their tenure at Grindr or relocating to their respective team's newly assigned 'hub' city to work in-person twice a week."

Following the RTO mandate, about 80 of Grindr's 178 employees were forced to resign, the CWA said.

Grindr did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Over the past year and a half, Amazon, Google, Meta, IBM, Dell, and others have curtailed remote work policies, some of which became more permissive as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This RTO rollback has become broader over time – Amazon went from expecting workers to be in the office three days per week as of May 1, 2023, to five days per week starting in 2025.

In some cases, affected workers believe there's more to RTO than corporate claims that working on-site improves corporate performance – arguments that have been rebutted by research. IBM and Dell employees, for example, have described RTO as a way to drive employees to quit – so layoffs and severance pay can be avoided.

The NLRB complaint alleges that Grindr's RTO plan followed from employees forming a union, and seeks a Cemex bargaining order, a cease-and-desist order, and other remedies. If the NLRB and Grindr cannot reach a settlement, the case will be heard by an administrative law judge in March, 2025. ®

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