Articles and Blogs

Many employers have rules prohibiting the recording of conversations or the taking of photos or videos in the workplace. Even if there is no rule, many employers will tell an employee who wants to record something that it’s not allowed. Presumably, there may be several legitimate reasons for the employer’s reaction to workplace recordings.... READ MORE

Over the years, we have “followed” the NLRB’s analysis of employer social medial policies. Employee’s “Like” of Another’s Facebook Rant Is Protected The evolution continues. On October 21, in an unpublished opinion, the Second Circuit (with district courts in Connecticut, New York and Vermont) affirmed the NLRB’s August 2014 decision in the controversial Triple... READ MORE

The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has reviewed a number of private employer rules restricting off-duty employees’ access to employer facilities. In some cases, the NLRB has held that the employer’s rule was unlawfully overbroad because it granted the employer too much discretion to determine the business reason for an employee’s access.  In other... READ MORE

The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has decided to allow a union to present electronic evidence of employee authorization in support of a request for a secret ballot election in the private sector. This move may make it even easier for a union to gather support and raises many concerns about how employees use computers... READ MORE

Employees in the private sector have a legally protected right to engage in concerted activity for their mutual aid and protection. The NLRB has interpreted this to mean that employees have the right to discuss among themselves ongoing confidential investigations initiated by the employer in response to workplace complaints. An employer that requires or... READ MORE

The NLRB has again decided that using profanity-laced Facebook postings specifically aimed at management is legally protected.  This decision  by two members of the NLRB, despite one strong dissent, continues the pattern of granting legal protections to employees who use profanity in exercising their protected rights in support of a union or other group... READ MORE

A Helpful Memo? Almost every employer has an employee handbook of some sort or at least a set of rules and policies that are established to let employees know what is expected of them. In the private sector, the NLRB has been focusing for several years on rules and policies that are too broad... READ MORE

A company that provides wheelchair accessible van transportation services to clients, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, got into trouble when it required employees to sign a confidentiality agreement that the NLRB found interfered with employees’ protected rights. The company was ordered to rescind the unlawful portions of the agreement and notify all employees that... READ MORE

By now private employers should be well aware that employees who openly criticize management and refuse to obey instructions will often be found to be engaging in lawful, protected activity by the NLRB. Another very recent decision by the NLRB brings home that point again – even where no union is involved. READ MORE

Rejecting and overruling its 2007 decision in Register Guard that limited employee rights to use employer email systems for union organizing, the NLRB, in a three to two decision, significantly broadened the scope of private employee rights to use an employer’s email system for union organizing purposes and other protected activity.  The decision focused on... READ MORE