MILWAUKEE • Wisconsin-based home improvement chain Menard Inc. is violating federal labor law in how the company treats its employees, staff at the National Labor Relations Board concluded.

The agency's regional office found that Menards has been improperly requiring employees to sign mandatory-arbitration agreements. NLRB staff also found that the Eau Claire-based retailer has withheld merit pay raises for workers engaged in protected activities, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Seth Goldstein, an official with a New York-based local of the Office and Professional Employees International Union, filed the complaint about Menards' practices.

"This is very important," Goldstein said. "It will affect over 46,000 employees." Menards operates 287 stores in 14 states and employs more than 45,000 people, according to its website.

Goldstein filed his complaint after a December report by The Progressive magazine that Menards' agreements with managers called for their income to automatically be cut by 60 percent if a union won an election at their operation. The magazine reported that a Menards' management employee had provided it with a copy of one such agreement from 2015.