Richard Griffin, the National Labor Relations Board’s General Counsel, conducted recently a report on employee handbook rules and regulations. According to the conclusions of this report, there are many policies that can be unlawful with the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Therefore, in order to be in full compliance with the NLRA, it would be advisable for employers to review their employee handbooks thoroughly.
According to the report, the reason why most policies are unlawful is because the employees could interpret them as restricting the employees’ right to discuss certain issues with other employees or other people, such as salaries, benefits, working conditions… And these policies may be completely well-intentioned, but if the language used to explain them is not completely clear and can lead to misinterpretation, then it is recommended to fix them.
These are the categories in which employers are most often uncompliant with the NLRA and the way to make them lawful:
Confidentiality: employers cannot forbid employees from talking about their pay, hours, complaints they may have about the workplaces or other personal information, but they can prohibit them from telling confidential information about the company.
Employee behavior: the company cannot prohibit the employees from being disrespectful with the company’s business or reputation, but they can forbid them from being derogatory with the company’s products, and can demand them to treat customers, vendors or other competition companies with respect.
Behavior towards other coworkers: employers cannot prohibit employees from talking in an inappropriate way about the supervisors or directors, unions and workplace conditions with other employees, because they have the right to do so. But employers can demand employees to treat all other coworkers respectfully and in a professional way, in addition, of course, to prohibit any discriminatory and harassing behavior.
Communications with third parties: companies cannot prohibit employees from speaking with government agencies or the media, but they can ban them from talking on behalf of the company if they are not authorized to do so.
Use of company logos, copyrights and trademarks: the NLRB allows employees to use company names, logos and trademarks on picket leaflets, signs or other materials they may use for protest, but companies can demand employees to respect all intellectual property and copyright laws.
Photos and recordings: employers cannot prohibit employees from taking pictures or recording in the company premises and properties, but they can limit the rights of employees by restricting certain things, such as protecting the client’s privacy and forbidding taking pictures or recording them.
Leaving work: employees have the right to go on protected strikes, so a policy against “walking off the job” would be unlawful, but employers can prohibit their employees from leaving early without permission or not informing about a scheduled shift.
Policies regarding conflict-of-interest: employers cannot forbid employees for doing something that may not be in the company’s best interest, but they can ban, because of a conflict-of-interest, any employee that may have an ownership or financial interest in a supplier, competitor or customer, or because an employee is taking advantage of their position for personal profit.
