Tag Archives: employer handbooks

Moment of Clarity? NLRB Upholds Info-Sharing and Media Contact Rules, Clarifies Boeing Standard Applicable to Employer Handbook Policies

The NLRB continues to issue decisions on a variety of interesting issues. On October 10, the Board held, in LA Specialty Produce Co., 368 NLRB No. 93 (Oct. 10, 2019), that an employer’s strong confidentiality protections and limited media availability rules were lawful, and in so doing, clarified the analysis under the newly-issued Boeing standard, … Continue Reading

NLRB Rules Employer’s Handbook Statement That Benefit Available To “Non-Union Employees” Violates Act

By Mark Theodore on February 26, 2019 Posted in Employer policies, General Counsel, Handbook, NLRA, NLRB, Protected activity, Section 8(a)(1), Uncategorized

During the last decade, a number of NLRB decisions faulted employers for written policies that were considered to be overbroad in violation of the National Labor Relations Act. These rulings sprang largely from the NLRB’s decision in Lutheran Heritage Village-Livonia, 343 NLRB 646 (2004), where the Board set forth a standard for evaluating the lawfulness of employer policies that … Continue Reading

NLRB Finds Employer Effectively Repudiated Unlawful Handbook Rule…and RecusalGate Continues

By Mark Theodore on October 23, 2018 Posted in Employer policies, Handbook, NLRA, NLRB, Section 7, Section 8(a)(1), Solicitation, Uncategorized, Unfair Labor Practices

The Board issued an interesting decision discussing an employer’s successful efforts to repudiate unlawful conduct, which we’ll get to in a minute. In our last post, we discussed a simmering dispute over the circumstances which an NLRB member must recuse himself or herself. This issue, we’ll call it Recusalgate, has taken an interesting turn. In ADI … Continue Reading

NLRB General Counsel Issues Handbook on Handbook Rules

By Michael Lebowich, Joshua Fox and Jay M. Cohen on June 7, 2018 Posted in Advice, General Counsel, Handbook, NLRA, NLRB, Non-Union employers, Section 7, Uncategorized

Following up on the NLRB’s decision in The Boeing Company, 365 NLRB No. 154 (Dec. 14, 2017), on June 6, NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb issued a new Guidance Memorandum (18-04) detailing how NLRB Regional Offices receiving claims of improper employment policies are to interpret employer workplace rules. As we reported this past December (here), … Continue Reading

Handbook Wars – Common Sense Returns NLRB Overhauls Standard for Legality of Work Rules

By Mark Theodore and Joshua Fox on December 15, 2017 Posted in Employer policies, Handbook, NLRA, NLRB, Protected activity, Section 8(a)(1)

We have noted many times over the years how the NLRB’s zeal to review employer policies, or more correctly, fragments of employer policies, for lawfulness has led to nettlesome issues that rarely, if ever, involve actual employees. The results have been absurd and have raised an entire cottage industry of attacks on language by unions … Continue Reading

Here We Go: The Full Board Finally Starts to Make Its Mark

By Michael Lebowich and Joshua Fox on December 14, 2017 Posted in Employer policies, Handbook, Joint Employer, NLRA, NLRB, Section 7, Section 8(a)(1), Unfair Labor Practices

NLRB Reverses Precedent on Joint Employer Liability and Standard Governing Employee Handbooks This afternoon, just two days prior to the end of Chairman Philip Miscimarra’s term, the NLRB issued a pair of 3-2 decisions overruling significant precedent regarding joint-employer status and the legal standard governing whether workplace rules violate the exercise of Section 7 rights … Continue Reading

NLRB GC Boldly Defines Direction of Board Prosecution in New GC Memo

By Mark Theodore on December 6, 2017 Posted in General Counsel, NLRA, NLRB, Protected activity, Uncategorized, Unfair Labor Practices

The new NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb has been fast at work. A short two weeks after being sworn in on November 17, 2017, the new General Counsel issued a memorandum making clear his intention to re-examine much of the legal precedent that was changed during the last 8 years,–and to undo many other initiatives … Continue Reading

Two Employees, Social Media, An Unlawful Policy. . .What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

By Mark Theodore on August 4, 2017 Posted in General Counsel, NLRA, NLRB, Protected activity, Section 7, Section 8(a)(1), Unfair Labor Practices

The advent of social media resulted in a feverish effort by the NLRB to keep up with new technology. In reality, the legal standard for evaluating whether conduct is protected concerted activity did not change. Rather, all the excitement was over the fact employees were being punished for things they said on social media, which was … Continue Reading

NLRB, Union Violated Act When Steward Invoked Company Handbook To Stop Member Complaints

By Mark Theodore on December 4, 2012 Posted in Employer policies, Handbook, NLRA, NLRB, Section 7, Section 8(b)(1)(A), Uncategorized

In the last couple of years, we have seen close scrutiny of employer handbooks by the NLRB. If the agency deems a policy, or a portion of a policy, to be something employees might reasonably construe to inhibit protected activities, it is found to be unlawful. These types of cases are vexing. if only because … Continue Reading

NLRB Developments Post-Election – What The Future May Hold In Labor Relations

By Mark Theodore on November 19, 2012 Posted in At-Will, Bargaining units, Employer policies, Facebook, General Counsel, Handbook, NLRA, NLRB, Off-duty Access, Section 7, Section 8(a)(1), Social Media Policies

Now that the election is over, one of the main questions being asked is, what next? We recently held a Webinar entitled “The Latest at the NLRB and Post-Election Developments” to address this question. It seems clear that with Congress still divided that there likely will not be much in the way of legislative change. The pressing issues … Continue Reading