{"id":1224,"date":"2016-03-09T10:22:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T15:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/events.lindabury.com\/?p=1224"},"modified":"2016-08-24T10:43:53","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T14:43:53","slug":"nlrb-decision-allows-employees-record-workplace-conversations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/nlrb-decision-allows-employees-record-workplace-conversations.html","title":{"rendered":"NLRB Decision Allows Employees to Record Workplace Conversations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the advance of mobile technologies, employers are faced with the growing probability that employees are utilizing these devices to record conversations or other conditions in the workplace. Currently, approximately 38 states, including New York and New Jersey, have laws which permit a party to surreptitiously record a conversation if one party to the conversation has given permission to be recorded while other states including Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Florida, require <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>all<\/strong><\/span> parties involved in the recording to consent. These laws do not, however, touch upon an employer\u2019s ability to regulate recordings in the workplace, and employers have generally assumed they were free to enact policies prohibiting or limiting recordings by employees. However, in a recent decision the National Labor Relations Board (the \u201cNLRB\u201d or \u201cBoard\u201d) held that it is a violation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/search\/%22section+7%22\" target=\"_blank\">Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act<\/a> (the \u201cAct\u201d) for an employer to maintain a policy that restricts or prohibits employees from recording conversations with management without prior management approval. Section 7 gives employees the right to freely discuss terms and conditions of employment and to act in concert with one another for their mutual aid and protection.<\/p>\n<p>The decision, <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Whole Foods Market, Inc. and United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 919, et al,<\/span><\/em> arose out of a policy in Whole Foods Market\u2019s General Information Guide prohibiting employees from recording \u201cphone calls, images, and company meetings with any recording device\u2026\u201d unless prior approval was received from management, or unless all parties to the conversation consented to the recording. \u00a0Whole Foods\u2019 no-recording policy was aimed at eliminating the \u201cchilling effect\u201d on the free expression of views that would otherwise arise if employees believed or suspected that they were being recorded on a device.<\/p>\n<p>The NLRB took the opposite view, concluding that policies prohibiting employees from recording in the workplace without prior approval by management violate the Act because that policy has a \u201cchilling effect\u201d on the employee\u2019s rights to engage in protected concerted activity under the NLRA. \u00a0According to the NLRB, protected conduct that might be negatively affected by prohibitions on recording include, for example, recording of images of protected picketing, documenting unsafe workplace equipment or hazardous working conditions, documenting and publicizing discussions about terms and conditions of employment (such as a meeting to discuss potential discipline), documenting inconsistent application of employer rules, or documenting evidence for later use in judicial or administrative actions. \u00a0The NLRB determined that photography and recording in the workplace is an \u201cessential element\u201d in preserving and vindicating labor rights under the Act. Whole Foods was thus ordered to withdraw its policy and post notice of its violation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/nlrb-decision-allows-employees-record-workplace-conversations.html\"  title=\"Continue Reading NLRB Decision Allows Employees to Record Workplace Conversations\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prohibiting employee recordings of workplace conversations and conditions violates Section 7 of NLRA according to National Labor Relations Board<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,247],"tags":[],"coauthors":[214],"class_list":["post-1224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights","category-labor-employment-insights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NLRB Decision Allows Employees to Record Workplace Conversations &#8212; March 9, 2016 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. 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Sim\u00f5es","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/nlrb-decision-allows-employees-record-workplace-conversations.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/nlrb-decision-allows-employees-record-workplace-conversations.html"},"author":{"name":"Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C.","@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/#\/schema\/person\/429b3bd6b52a7aa6eb9a0709bbb4d06f"},"headline":"NLRB Decision Allows Employees to Record Workplace Conversations","datePublished":"2016-03-09T15:22:06+00:00","dateModified":"2016-08-24T14:43:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/nlrb-decision-allows-employees-record-workplace-conversations.html"},"wordCount":524,"articleSection":["Insights","Labor &amp; Employment"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/nlrb-decision-allows-employees-record-workplace-conversations.html","url":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/nlrb-decision-allows-employees-record-workplace-conversations.html","name":"NLRB Decision Allows Employees to Record Workplace Conversations &#8212; March 9, 2016 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. 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