Once President Trump’s appointees gained a majority of National Labor Relations Board seats this summer, it was only a matter of time before the board began addressing the aggressive pro-employee positions taken by its...more
Under federal labor law, employees involved in a labor dispute with their employer have the right to seek assistance from the company’s customers. On August 14, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rejected a claim from...more
Two recent major news stories again involve the intersection of politics with employment law. In the first matter, Google fired a programmer after he posted an internal document criticizing the company’s diversity...more
8/23/2017
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Diversity ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Google ,
Hate Speech ,
Hiring & Firing ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Political Expression ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Race Discrimination ,
Retaliation
Over the past several years, we have reported on a seemingly never-ending series of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decisions proclaiming a variety of abusive employee practices as protected behavior under federal labor...more
Last year, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) surprised many employers when it declared illegal Whole Foods’ policy that prohibits employees from video or audio recording in the workplace. The Board concluded that the...more
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
At least for now, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) continues its assault on employer social media policies. In a recent Board decision, G4S Secure Solutions (USA), Inc., the majority declared a variety of policies...more
Employers are well aware of the National Labor Relations Board’s increasingly aggressive prosecution of employers accused of violating employee rights by attempting to restrict their social media interactions. Earlier this...more
Yet another chapter in the National Labor Relations Board’s assault on employer social media policies. Earlier this month, the Board rejected Chipotle’s policy that prohibited employees from “posting incomplete, confidential,...more
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
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
Last month, the National Labor Relations Board continued its rejection of employer conduct policies intended to promote harmonious and productive working relationships among employees. In T-Mobile USA, Inc., unionized...more
The National Labor Relations Board continues its assault on employer handbooks and other policies it considers to impede employees’ rights to engage in protected concerted activity under Section 7 of the NLRA. Last month, the...more
5/4/2016
/ Code of Conduct ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Hospitals ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Nurses ,
Patient Safety ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Section 7 ,
Termination ,
Workplace Bullying
The National Labor Relations Board continues to interpret Section 7 of the NLRA to prevent employers from adopting social media policies that restrict employees’ ability to publically complain about their terms and conditions...more
Like many employers, Whole Foods adopted a policy prohibiting employees from conducting unauthorized recording of conversations, phone calls or meetings, regardless of the recording technology used. Employers generally...more
North Carolina’s controversial new “Ag-Gag” Law took effect January 1. The bill was passed at the behest of state pork and poultry interests concerned over animal rights activists using employment as a cover to film...more
As exhaustively reported in EmployNews over the past several years, the National Labor Relations Board has been attacking numerous employee handbook provisions considered for years by employers to constitute standard...more
Family and Medical Leave Act contains a two-year statute of limitations for claims of interference with or retaliation against protected employee activity. Last month, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals faced questions over...more
Last week, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals backed the National Labor Relations Board’s position that employee social media postings are protected concerted activity under federal law, even if they use obscenities that...more
Many, if not most employers maintain policies regarding disclosure by employees of confidential business information. Sometimes these policies appear in employee handbooks, and sometimes employees are required to sign...more
Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects employees’ rights to engage in “concerted activity.” Concerted activity means persons acting on behalf of two or more employees with regard to issues involving terms and...more
Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act prohibits employers from discriminating or retaliating against employees who engage in protected concerted activity. Concerted Activity means actions involving terms and...more
8/17/2015
/ Class Action ,
Collective Actions ,
Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Retaliation ,
Section 7 ,
Tipped Employees
When conducting an internal investigation involving possible disciplinary violations, employers often ask participants in the investigation to maintain its confidentiality pending completion. Last month, the National Labor...more
As previously reported in EmployNews, recent National Labor Relations Board decisions have disrupted established guidelines with regard to employers’ obligations to tolerate uncivil and insulting behavior and comments from...more
Over the past several years, EmployNews has reported dozens of cases involving challenges by the National Labor Relations Board’s Office of the General Counsel to what appeared to be standard employee handbook provisions. In...more