The National Labor Relations Board (Board) continues its scrutiny of employer policies—this time striking down an email policy designed to ensure that health care employees provide patient care without distraction. UPMC, 362 NLRB No. 191 (August 27, 2015). The employers in this most recent case were two acute-care hospitals, UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside and Magee-Women’s Hospital of UPMC (Hospitals), that maintained a policy prohibiting staff from using the hospitals’ email system for any type of solicitation at any time. Building on its recent decision in Purple Communications, 361 NLRB No. 126 (December 11, 2014), a 2-1 majority of the Board applied its presumption that employees with access to their employer’s email system have a right to use that system to engage in union activity during nonworking time, absent “special circumstances.” While the Board acknowledged that “using a hospital’s email system during working time may be distracting,” it found the policy unlawful because, among other reasons, it prohibited only one type of communication (solicitation) and because the policy’s prohibition on solicitation was not limited to working time.
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