Tag Archive for: handbooks

NLRB returns to more aggressive reviews of handbooks and other policy language

Jettisoning a Trump-era decision that in turn jettisoned an Obama-era approach to handbooks and policies, the NLRB, in a case entitled Stericycle, Inc., has returned to the more aggressive Obama-era approach. Now, the Board will return to reviewing the language of policies on their face for whether the Board believes the language could pose “a reasonable tendency to chill” NLRA-protected actions, and if so, find the employer in violation of the NLRA, even if the employer had no such intent. Revising the Obama-era approach slightly, now, employers will be able to assert an affirmative defense if they can prove that the language was “narrowly tailored” to advance a “legitimate and substantial business interest,” which it was otherwise unable to further without the language.

(O)ur (new) standard requires the General Counsel to prove that a challenged rule has a reasonable tendency to chill employees from exercising their Section 7 rights. We clarify that the Board will interpret the rule from the perspective of an employee who is subject to the rule and economically dependent on the employer, and who also contemplates engaging in protected concerted activity. Consistent with this perspective, the employer’s intent in maintaining a rule is immaterial. Rather, if an employee could reasonably interpret the rule to have a coercive meaning, the General Counsel will carry her burden, even if a contrary, noncoercive interpretation of the rule is also reasonable. If the General Counsel carries her burden, the rule is presumptively unlawful, but the employer may rebut that presumption by proving that the rule advances a legitimate and substantial business interest and that the employer is unable to advance that interest with a more narrowly tailored rule. If the employer proves its defense, then the work rule will be found lawful to maintain.

NLRB permits wearing of union insignia absent special circumstances

In Tesla, Inc., the NLRB reversed a Trump-era decision re union insignia, returning to prior caselaw holding that employers must allow employees to wear union insignia despite dress codes and uniform policies, unless “special circumstances” require otherwise. Whether special circumstances exists will depend on whether, in each case’s circumstances, the union insignia “may jeopardize employee safety, damage machinery or products, exacerbate employee dissension, unreasonably interfere with a public image that the employee has established, or when necessary to maintain decorum and discipline among employees.”

NLRB confirms unionized employers may adopt handbook

In Stericycle, Inc., 370 N.L.R.B. No. 89 (2/17/2021), the NLRB held that an employer may adopt and issue handbooks to its workforce, including unionized bargaining unit members, even where that language on its face is contrary to the union’s collective bargaining agreement, so long as it does not purport to apply that inconsistent language to the bargaining unit. In Stericycle, the company had not historically distributed its handbook to the union’s bargaining unit members. There had been two versions of the handbook over the years, and neither had been given to those workers. When a third was developed, its distributees did include the bargaining unit workers.  Unfortunately the handbook did not contain a clear disclaimer that the CBA would control in the case of any conflict with the CBA; rather, it contained a disclaimer to the effect that “some benefits may not apply to union team members and in some cases the policies may be impacted by collective bargaining agreements.” The union claimed its bargaining unit employees were indeed “impacted,” as the union pointed out many policies were contrary to the CBA. To complicate the situation further, the company had not involved the union or even given the union notice and an opportunity to discuss the handbook before implementing it. In a hotly split decision, the Board voted to reverse the lower decision and held that the company had not violated the NLRA, reasoning that the company’s disclaimer language was clear enough to suggest that the CBA would control and further that the union had failed to produce any evidence that the company had intended otherwise.

In another reversal, NLRB holds employers can issue so-called “gag orders” to protect the confidentiality of workplace investigations

The NLRB has ruled that employers can issue so-called “gag orders” to protect the confidentiality of workplace investigations. A typical “gag order” would be an instruction by the company to employees (and other witnesses) not to discuss matters relevant to an on-going investigation.

The decision triggered a heated dissent from one Board member who argued it will allow employers, in #MeToo type matters, to further keep secret wrongful matters, such as the details of sexual harassment.

In issuing its decision the Board held that such “gag orders” will, still, draw individualized case-by-case scrutiny from the Board when they are “not
limited on their face to open investigations
.”

In reaching its decision, the Board applied its new more permissive approach to analyzing handbooks and policies.

Source: Apogee Retail, 368 NLRB No. 144 (12/17/19).

Board steers a sharp 180 in the application of Section 7 to handbooks and policies

During President Obama’s administration, the NLRB substantially expanded its scrutiny of handbooks, workplace rules and workplace policies that, it felt, conflicted with Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. Section 7 is the part of the Act that permits both unionized and non-unionized workers to act together in concert to further their wages, hours and working conditions.

On June 6, 2018, NLRB General Counsel Peter B. Robb announced the Board will no longer lean towards finding violations of Section 7 in workplace policies. The General Counsel’s memo implements the Board’s own decision in The Boeing Company, 365 NLRB No. 154 (Dec. 14, 2017), where it reversed much of the doctrines associated with the Obama-era Board’s Section 7 analysis and the General Counsel’s previous memo in December 2017.

Now the Board is directed to no longer err on the side of finding a violation when it determines language is merely on its face, without evidence of actual anti-union animus, potentially ambiguous.

Regions should now note that ambiguities in rules are no longer interpreted against the drafter, and generalized provisions should not be interpreted as banning all activity that could conceivably be included.

NLRB General Counsel advised Board personnel that, now, the following types of policies should be considered presumptively lawful:

  • Civility codes (for example, policies that prohibit language or behavior that is offensive, rude, discourteous, negative, annoying, disparaging, condescending, etc.)
  • Rules that prohibit photography/recording in the workplace
  • Rules that prohibit insubordination or non-cooperation
  • Rules that prohibit disruptive or boisterous conduct
  • Rules that protect confidential, proprietary or customer information
  • Rules that prohibit defamation or misrepresentation
  • Rules that protect company logos and I.P.
  • Rules that prohibit speaking on behalf of the company without authorization
  • Rules that prohibit disloyalty, nepotism or self-enrichment

NLRB General Counsel advised Board personnel that, now, the following types of policies will no longer be considered presumptively unlawful, but rather will now require individualized analysis of the particular circumstances of each case:

  • Rules that prohibit conflicts of interest “that do not specifically target fraud and self-enrichment”
  • Broad confidentiality rules that merely protect “employer business” or “employer information”
  • Anti-disparagement rules that prohibit criticizing the company only
  • Rules that broadly prohibit the use of a company’s name
  • Rules that restrict workers’ ability to speak to media or third-parties on their own behalf
  • Rules that prohibit lawful off-duty conduct that is otherwise protected
  • Rules that broadly prohibit making any kind of “false or inaccurate statements”

Finally, NLRB General Counsel identified the following as rules that remain presumptively unlawful:

  • Rules that prohibit employees from discussing their wages, hours and working conditions
  • Rules that prohibit employees from disclosing their own wages, hours and working conditions to the media
  • Rules that prohibit employees from joining “outside organizations”

NLRB General Counsel also cautioned that the Board’s historical (pre-Obama era) approach to the following types of policies remains unchanged:

  • Solicitation/distribution policies
  • Workplace access policies
  • Uniform policies (to include rules re buttons, tshirts, etc.)

Source: NLRB General Counsel Memorandum GC 18-04 (6/6/18).

NLRB General Counsel issues memo outlining likely reversals to Obama-era precedents

As previously reported here in this blog, the Trump Board (NLRB Boards are often colloquially but not pejoratively referred to by the President during their term) has begun overruling Obama-era precedents. Further reversals are anticipated. Curious which Obama-era NLRB precedents are likely to be reversed?

NLRB General Counsel Robb issued a controversial memo, shortlisting the cases he thinks most warrant attention. Indeed to call it a shortlist is a stretch. The General Counsel lists 26 categories, that range from employee access to email, to protections for section 7 rights, obscene and harassing behavior, off-duty access to property, the Weingarten right to have a representative present, rights of employees during contract negotiations, successorship and of course the joint employer doctrine, unilateral changes consistent with past practice, information requests during the processing of a grievance, dues check-offs, remedies, deferral, and, well, the list goes on, as will employers’ need to stay tuned to forthcoming developments at the Board.

Source: NLRB General Counsel Memorandum GC 18-02.

Second Circuit OK’s profanity in the workplace

In a controversial case, the Second Circuit affirmed the NLRB’s decision that profanity – profanity any reasonable employer would arguably not permit in its workplace – must be permitted in the workplace. This stunning decision was rendered under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, which is a section of that law that applies to non-union as well as unionized employers. Section 7 permits employees to engage in speech to further their wages, hours and working conditions.

In this case, the speech was designed to solicit support for a union in its organizing campaign. An employee felt his supervisor spoke to him harshly, so, on a break at work, he used his phone to post on Facebook text that included saying that supervisor “is such a NASTY MOTHER F*CKER don’t know how to talk to people!!!!!! F*ck his mother and his entire f*cking family!!!! What a LOSER!!!! Vote YES for the UNION!!!!!!!” (Asterisks added.) What most employers and management-side counsel would find so striking about this language is its combination of purely gratuitous profanity – the graphic cursing adds nothing to the message’s content – but its attack on the supervisor’s mother and “entire” family. Still, when the employee was discharged, and a charge filed at the NLRB, the Board and now the Second Circuit held against the company,

How could both the Second Circuit and the NLRB find this language not only acceptable but legally protected? One unusual fact in the case is perhaps significant and may limit this decision to this particular workplace: The court said that there was “widespread profanity in the workplace, including the words ‘f*ck’ and ‘mother*cker,’ among other expletives and racial slurs.” (Asterisks added.)

Because the profanity occurred in social media, the Second Circuit reiterated the NLRB’s multi-factor test for social media postings:

The “totality of the circumstances” test for evaluating an employee’s use of social media may consider the following factors: (1) any evidence of antiunion hostility; (2) whether the conduct was provoked; (3) whether the conduct was impulsive or deliberate; (4) the location of the conduct; (5) the subject matter of the conduct; (6) the nature of the content; (7) whether the employer considered similar content to be offensive; (8) whether the employer maintained a specific rule prohibiting the content at issue; and (9) whether the discipline imposed was typical for similar violations or proportionate to the offense. Pier Sixty, LLC, 2015 WL 1457688, at *3.

The Second Circuit’s conclusion suggests this case is limited to its unique facts, making it the “outer-bounds” (as the Second Circuit, itself, called the decision) of this seemingly already stretched reading of Section 7. The court described its own decisions, as follows:

In sum, Pier Sixty has failed to meet its burden of showing that Perez’s behavior was so egregious as to lose the protection of the NLRA under the Board’s “totality‐of‐the‐circumstances” test.   However, we note that this case seems to us to sit at the outer‐bounds of protected, union‐related comments, and any test for evaluating “opprobrious conduct” must be sufficiently sensitive to employers’ legitimate disciplinary interests, as we have previously cautioned.50 We have considered all of Pier Sixty’s objections to enforcement and have found them to be without merit.

The case was NLRB v. Pier Sixty, LLC (2nd Cir. 4/21/17).