A U.S. appeals court on Friday affirmed a rare decision by the National Labor Relations Board ordering an employer to pay a unions' negotiating expenses, saying the board has broad discretion to decide the types of egregious conduct that warrant the unusual remedy.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected claims by Fallbrook.

Hospital Corp that its attempts in 2012 to delay talks with the California Nurses Association were a routine bargaining tactic.

The board in a 2-1decision last year said the hospital's conduct, which included failing to make any proposals during several months of talks and cutting bargaining sessions short, was intended to drag out negotiations while the hospital considered shuttering its acute care unit, where the nurses in the union worked.

It did not specify the amount of the expenses the hospital located near San Diego should pay.

In its 1995 decision in Unbelievable Inc., the NLRB held that employers or unions could be ordered to pay the opposing party's negotiating expenses if their conduct "infected the core of a bargaining process to such an extent that their effects cannot be eliminated by the application of traditional remedies."

The D.C. Circuit panel on Friday agreed with the board that Fallbrook's actions met the standard in Unbelievable. Even if it disagreed, the panel said, courts may only overturn board remedies that clearly violate the law.

"The court has no business second-guessing the Board's judgments regarding remedies for unfair labor practices, "Circuit Judge Harry Edwards wrote.

The panel also included Circuit Judges Merrick Garland and Cornelia Pillard.

The court also rejected the hospital's bid to remand the case to the board to reconsider its decision in light of the closing of the acute care unit and layoffs of the nurses last year.

Since the union will no longer be representing the former workers, the hospital said, it should not be paid for prospective bargaining costs. Edwards wrote that "this argument is not only meritless, it reflects real chutzpah."

An NLRB spokeswoman declined to comment.

The hospital's attorney, Kaitlin Kaseta, did not return a request for comment.

Fallbrook is one of at least five hospitals owned by Tennessee-based Community Health Systems to be targeted by the NLRB over the past few years for unfair labor practices. But the others, in California, West Virginia and Ohio, have not been ordered to pay unions' costs.

Original Post: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/08/unions-nlrb-expenses-idUSL1N0XZ2JI20150508