Employers who provide email access to employees may have provided employees with a powerful union-organizing tool.

On December 10, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a decision reversing a 2007 NLRB decision which held that an employer could prohibit use of its company email system for union organizing purposes.1 Recently, the General Counsel’s office of the NLRB had advocated for a change in that decision. The NLRB’s decision in Purple Communications, Inc., 361 NLRB No. 126 (2014) reflects that shift.

In Purple Communicationsthe NLRB ruled that employees who have been granted access to an employer’s email system can use that system to attempt to unionize the workforce, provided they do not do so during work time.