Labor prosecutors have accused the LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr of wielding a return-to-office policy to thwart a union organizing effort.
A spokesperson for the National Labor Relations Board said the agency’s general counsel filed the charges Friday, alleging Grindr used the mandate to force out employees because they had “joined the union and engaged in concerted activities.” The NLRB is responsible for investigating union-busting claims and overseeing union elections.
The complaint also accuses Grindr of presenting workers with an unlawful severance agreement and refusing to bargain with the workers’ union, the Communications Workers of America.
Grindr denied the allegations in an emailed statement to HuffPost, calling them “meritless.”
“Grindr team members work from one of our offices just 2 days per week under our hybrid work model, and our decision to transition from fully remote to hybrid work in 2023 predated the union election petition,” the company said. “It was only after it was known that the transition back to in-office work was underway that some employees began signing union cards.”
The CWA said Grindr, which is based in West Hollywood, California, lost nearly half of its staff after mandating a return to the office last year, as many workers would have had to move long distances in order to make in-office work possible. The union also said the severance agreements included a provision to “silence” workers from speaking out.
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“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,” the union said at the time.
Last December, Grindr employees voted 19-13 in favor of joining CWA. But ballots from another 55 voters were challenged by either the company or the union, so the labor board must determine their eligibility before announcing an official result.
The NLRB spokesperson said most of those challenged ballots were cast by workers pushed out under the return-to-office policy.
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The general counsel’s office is asking the labor board to issue what’s known as a Cemex bargaining order, which would require Grindr to negotiate a contract with the union regardless of what the election results turn out to be. The general counsel’s office requests such an order when it believes an employer has broken the law in a way that tainted the vote.
The labor board created the Cemex framework in a landmark decision last year, saying it would discourage companies from breaking the law by making it more dangerous to do so. It is one of many progressive labor policies likely to be rolled back if former President Donald Trump returns to the White House next year.
