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Acting NLRB General Counsel rescinds Abruzzo-era memo regarding severance and non-competes, signaling likely changes to labor law

2/18/25

By: Carli L. Smith

The NLRB is once again in the news: on Friday, acting National Labor Relations Board General Counsel William Cowen rescinded a series of memos issued by the previous General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. The rescission of the Abruzzo memos is not surprising but signals a new pathway for the agency during the Trump administration.  

The NLRB’s General Counsel is a significant mouthpiece for a presidential administration’s views on labor relations, guiding the direction of federal labor law by identifying which issues and legal theories will come before the NLRB via prosecution through regional offices. The memos of the General Counsel issued throughout their tenure signal their views, priorities for prosecution, and what cases regional offices are likely to pursue, and how. The memos themselves lack legal weight – however, the memos direct regional offices on which legal issues to pursue, and offer employers insight as to where the NLRB, Administrative Law Judges, and the law itself may be headed.  

Abruzzo was appointed by former President Joe Biden, and the memos issued during her tenure embodied significant initiatives of the Abruzzo-led NLRB. During her service as the General Counsel, Abruzzo pursued widened applications of federal labor law, including a memo illustrating her sweeping views on when severance and noncompete agreements infringe on workers’ labor rights. Since the issuance of the Abruzzo memo regarding severance and noncompete agreements, the NLRB has investigated and prosecuted claims that employers’ severance and noncompete agreements infringe on employees’ rights. For example, in August 2023, the NLRB issued a decision in Stericycle, Inc. adopting a new legal standard regarding work rules alleged to “chill employees’ exercise of rights” under the NLRA. The NLRB also previously issued a decision in McClaren Macomb returning to “longstanding precedent” holding that employers may not offer severance agreements that require a broad waiver of rights under the NLRA.  

Despite acting General Counsel Cowen’s revocation of the Abruzzo memos, the decision in Stericycle and subsequent cases expanding on the new legal standard remain as authority on this important issue. Given the NLRB’s expected direction under the Trump administration, a new legal standard for this significant issue is likely to emerge. FMG’s team of talented labor attorneys will be monitoring NLRB decisions as they are issued in anticipation of this change.  

For more information, please contact Bob Chadwick, Carli Smith or your local FMG attorney.