Along with small businesses, credit unions covered under a proposed National Labor Relations Rule requiring posting of notices on union organizing have been given a three-month reprieve until April 30 to comply.

According to Boston labor attorney Howard Bloom, a recent speaker at a Massachusetts Credit Union League seminar, the NLRB's second delay of the notice posting rule raises the prospect that “it might not go into effect at all though that remains to be seen.”

The rule, which was to go into effect Jan. 31, follows an earlier Nov. 14, 2001 deadline. It stipulates that a CU or small business must post a stand-alone, 11 x 17 poster on collective bargaining rights so it can “be easily seen” by employees.

Small business and manufacturing trade groups have sought to block NLRB implementation of the rule in federal D.C. courts.

In a Dec. 23 notice the NLRB said it would be delaying implementation after U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson sided with the National Association of Manufacturers on a suit it brought against the agency on grounds the posters illegally promote unionization.

If the rule does become effective, “supervisors who have never been confronted by this kind of issue” will need to be well trained to understand employee rights, advised Bloom, a partner at Jackson Lewis LLP of Boston.