On December 11, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a major decision, Purple Communications. The decision reversed the board’s 2007 decision in Register Guard, where the NLRB had drawn one of the few helpful bright lines in labor. Register Guard said that a company’s email system is just that, the company’s email system, and that a company is, therefore, entitled to control usage of its email system, just as it controls usage of fleet vehicles or other equipment.

This decision created a clear line, or some would say confirmed prior law that had created a clear line. It permitted employers to say that corporate email systems can be used only for business. By reversing Register Guard, the NLRB has opened the door to employees who wish “to use their employer’s email systems for Section 7 purposes.” What are the limits of that use? Can an employee go so far as to use offensive and intimidating language, criticizing management and supervisors, for example, in a union-organizing campaign? Must employers make email addresses available to the workers? Those are just some of the questions companies will be asking.