News & Analysis as of September 22, 2024

Corporate Counsel

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The phrase "Protected Concerted Activity" refers to certain protected activities specified in the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. Under the NLRA, covered employees may join together to improve their wages and working conditions. If employees are engaged in "protected concerted activity" and suffer adverse employment consequences, such employees may seek redress under the NLRA, whether or not they are members of a union. less -

Employee Handbooks Remain Under Board Attack

BakerHostetler on 6/21/2024

During the Obama administration, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or the Board) stringently reviewed employee handbooks of nonunionized employers to determine whether particular policies infringed on employees’ rights...more

Post-Labor Day Wrap Up: What NLRB’s 2023 Decisions Mean for Employers

Jackson Lewis P.C. on 9/22/2023

In the weeks surrounding Labor Day 2023, the National Labor Relations Board overturned precedent with decisions and rules significantly impacting both union and non-union employers. The result is labor laws encouraging both...more

NLRB Delivers Labor Day Gifts to Unions

Epstein Becker & Green on 9/11/2023

It has been a decision-packed summer at the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”), and the last weeks of summer were especially active, with a number of significant decisions released at the end of August that...more

Labor Board Issues a Blow to Workplace Conduct Policies: Here’s How Your Employee Handbook May Need to Change Today

Fisher Phillips on 8/3/2023

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) just changed the law again on employee handbooks by modifying the legal standards that for the past six years have provided a commonsense solution for evaluating workplace misconduct...more

Don’t Let the Pendulum Hit You as it Swings: NLRB General Counsel Previews a Pro-Labor Agenda

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on 8/19/2021

With a new President comes a shift in the balance of power at the National Labor Relations Board. To start, shortly after President Biden took office in January, the NLRB’s sole Democrat, Chairman McFerran, issued several...more

NLRB Division of Advice Releases Deluge of Advice Memoranda Discussing COVID-Related ULP Charges, Confidentiality Rules,...

Proskauer - Labor Relations Update on 7/22/2020

On July 15, 2020, the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) Division of Advice published 16 Advice Memoranda addressing myriad questions posed by various Regional Offices. While a majority of the Memoranda were drafted...more

Applying the Boeing Standard, NLRB Upholds Employer’s Policies Restricting Cell Phone Use, Non-Work Email Use and Disclosure of...

Proskauer - Labor Relations Update on 2/24/2020

Applying the facially neutral work rule test laid out in Boeing, the Board recently reversed an Administrative Law Judge decision, concluding that the employer maintained lawful workplace rules restricting employee use of (i)...more

Buttoning Up Rules on Union Insignia – Board Makes It Easier for Employers to Restrict Size and Scope of Union Buttons For Those...

Proskauer - Labor Relations Update on 12/30/2019

The Board continues churning out precedent-setting decisions as year-end approaches. Two days before the Christmas holiday, in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 368 NLRB No. 146 (Dec. 16, 2019), the NLRB applied its new view on handbook...more

NLRB Solidifies Boeing and Provides Guidance on Employer Workplace Rules

Epstein Becker & Green on 10/16/2019

As discussed in previous blog posts and articles, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), in Boeing Co., overruled past precedent that had resulted in the invalidation of “commonsense [workplace] rules and requirements...more

New NLRB Advice Memo Clarifies Social Media Policy Rules

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on 9/4/2019

The National Labor Relations Board continues to provide guidance with respect to employers’ attempts to regulate employee social media behavior. In its Boeing Co. decision, the board made it significantly more difficult for...more

Recent ALJ Decision Provides Important Nuance Regarding Workplace No Recording Rules

Proskauer - Labor Relations Update on 7/18/2019

In late 2017, the NLRB in Boeing Company, 365 NLRB No. 154 (2017), established a new three category system for classifying various employer policies. The new system was designed to balance a “work rule’s negative impact on...more

Labor Board Back to Five Member Composition – What Obama-Era Precedent Is Next on the Chopping Block?

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP on 4/27/2018

On April 11, 2018, former management lawyer John Ring was confirmed via a 50-48 party-line vote to serve on the five-member National Labor Relations Board (“Board”). Ring will replace Chairman Marvin Kaplan, another member of...more

New Sheriff(s) In Town: The NLRB Issues New Test For Workplace Rules - Boeing Co. Signals The End Of Lutheran Heritage And Its...

Fisher Phillips on 12/15/2017

The National Labor Relations Board just relieved employers of a great deal of uncertainty surrounding seemingly innocuous workplace rules and handbooks. The newly constituted NLRB issued its first round of significant...more

Another Federal Appeals Court Rejects Workplace Recording Bans

Fisher Phillips on 8/21/2017

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals recently became the second federal appeals court this year to hold that an employer’s rule prohibiting recording in the workplace violates the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). In a July 25...more

New NLRB Chair's Dissent May Point to Future Board Position on Challenges to Employee Handbook Policies

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on 3/16/2017

Over the past several years, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has repeatedly found that standard employee handbook provisions violate employees’ rights under Section 7 of the NLRA. These cases conclude that a variety...more

Blowin' in the Wind? The Evolution of a Balanced Analysis of Workplace Policies by the NLRB

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,... on 3/2/2017

On February 24 , 2017, a two-member majority (Members Mark Gaston Pearce and Lauren McFerran) of the National Labor Relations Board, over the dissent of Acting Chairman Philip Miscimarra, struck down yet another handbook...more

National Labor Relations Board Issues Yet Another Decision Finding An Employer’s Work Rules Overly Broad

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP on 12/13/2016

The National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) recently issued a decision that serves as a reminder for both union and non-union employers that the Board continues to take an aggressive stance on seemingly innocuous employment...more

NLRB Issues Numerous Decisions Against Employers as Hirozawa's Term Expires

Littler on 10/25/2016

In the midst of a heated presidential election cycle, employers are following recent decisions of the National Labor Relations Board closely. Before losing its three-member Democratic majority at the expiration of Board...more

NLRB Ruling in Social Media Case Provides Useful Guidance for Employers

Littler on 8/30/2016

Drafting a social media policy in compliance with Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA” or “the Act”) has become increasingly challenging for employers, as the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “the...more

NLRB Says General Conflict of Interest Policies Violate Federal Labor Law

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on 8/23/2016

Another week, another National Labor Relations Board decision concluding that a standard employee handbook policy violates employees’ rights to engage in protected concerted activity under Section 7 of the NLRA. This time,...more

D.C. Circuit Upholds NLRB Position on Illegal Handbook Policies

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on 8/16/2016

Over the past several years, the National Labor Relations Board has repeatedly declared standard employee handbook policies illegal because it considered them to violate employees’ rights to engage in protected concerted...more

NLRB Tells Employers to Mind their Own Business

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on 7/27/2016

Seyfarth Synopsis: An Administrative Law Judge held that an employer’s policy of prohibiting employees from conducting personal business at work, along with its social media and solicitation/distribution policies, violated...more

Guidance On Handbooks, Policies, And Social Media Guidelines – Employers’ Attempts to Protect Themselves Too Much Can Lead to Loss...

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on 7/22/2016

Seyfarth Synopsis: The NLRB orders employer to cease and desist from maintaining numerous provisions in its Social Networking Guideline and provisions in the Handbook related to social media, privacy, and confidentiality, and...more

Why Getting Handbooks Right Matters: NLRB Judge Holds Verizon’s Restrictions on Employee Communications During Non-Working Time...

Mintz - Employment, Labor & Benefits... on 10/2/2015

Despite previous NLRB rulings telling them to stop, some employers continue to impose broad prohibitions on personal employee communications over company email. As an administrative law judge recently reminded us, failing to...more

"WTF", Under the NLRB, Employers Should "Cut the Crap?" The NLRB on Employer Rules, Handbooks, and Increased Employee...

Burr & Forman on 6/15/2015

As you have likely seen by now, on March 18, 2015, the National Labor Relations Board Office of the General Counsel ("GC") issued an extensive memorandum offering guidance on employer rules and handbooks. This memorandum...more

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