NLRB reminds Big Lots workers of protected concerted rights

Big Lots workers do not need a union card to act together over pay, hours, safety or other working conditions. The National Labor Relations Board says private-sector employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act have the right to join together to improve their wages and working conditions, and that right applies whether they form a union, support one, or decide not to participate at all.

That matters in a chain like Big Lots, where store-floor problems are often shared. The NLRB says employees who are not represented by a union still have rights when they engage in protected concerted activity, meaning they act with co-workers for mutual aid or protection. In plain terms, that can include talking together about wages, benefits or working conditions, circulating a petition for better hours, refusing unsafe work, or going to management, a government agency or the media as a group to raise workplace concerns.

The agency also says employers cannot discharge, discipline, threaten or coercively question workers for that kind of protected activity. That is the line Big Lots employees need to understand. A private conversation about a personal complaint is not the same thing as workers joining forces over a shared issue, but once the concern turns into a group effort over scheduling, pay, safety or other store conditions, federal labor law can come into play.

The reminder lands at a time when Big Lots has been under intense pressure. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2024, then updated its store-closing list to 344 locations across 41 states. By December, Big Lots said its closure strategy would bring layoffs, and a Pennsylvania WARN notice said 505 employees at the company’s Tremont, Pennsylvania, distribution center would be affected by layoffs planned for January 6.

The restructuring did not stop there. Variety Wholesalers acquired 219 Big Lots locations out of bankruptcy, with the deal finalized in January 2025, and 132 stores were later scheduled to reopen under new ownership. For employees still on the clock, or trying to figure out what comes next, the NLRB’s message is straightforward: workers can talk together about the conditions they live with every shift, and federal law gives them room to do it.