{"id":3534,"date":"2018-07-27T14:26:15","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T18:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/?p=3534"},"modified":"2025-02-05T11:09:39","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T16:09:39","slug":"nlrb-changes-course-and-issues-new-common-sense-guidance-for-employer-handbook-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/nlrb-changes-course-and-issues-new-common-sense-guidance-for-employer-handbook-rules.html","title":{"rendered":"NLRB Changes Course And Issues New Common Sense Guidance For Employer Handbook Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most employers are aware that employee handbook rules that impede employees\u2019 abilities to engage in protected concerted activity \u2013 e.g.<\/em>, organizing unions, discussing wages, discipline or other terms and conditions of employment \u2013 run afoul of rights guaranteed by Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Under the prior administration the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) took a very narrow view, finding that facially-neutral policies that could conceivably<\/em> be construed to chill Section 7 rights are unlawful. As a result, employers were in peril of having the most innocuous workplace rules aimed at advancing basic employer interests, such as workplace civility, subject to challenge. Thankfully, the newly-constituted Board overruled years of precedent in favor of a much more reasonable and employer-friendly approach to assess the legality of employee handbook rules.<\/p>\n

In December 2017, the Board issued its ground-breaking decision in The Boeing Co.<\/em>, 365 NLRB No. 154, announcing a new three category test that balances the employer\u2019s interests in maintaining discipline and productivity and protecting its property, against employee rights to engage in concerted activities protected by the NLRA. On June 6, 2018, General Counsel of the NLRB issued a memorandum entitled \u201cGuidance on Handbook Rules Post-Boeing<\/em>\u201d that serves as a useful roadmap for how the Board will apply its new three-category standard to a wide array of workplace rules commonly found in employee handbooks and other policies. The Guidance makes is clear that that the mere possibility<\/em> that a workplace rule could be interpreted to preclude Section 7 activity is no longer a justification for finding the rule unlawful, and that \u201cambiguities in rules are no longer to be interpreted against the drafter, and generalized provisions should not be interpreted as banning all activity that could conceivably be included.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New Three-Category Test:<\/strong> When assessing the legality of workplace rules, the NLRB will now assign workplace rules to one of the following three categories:<\/p>\n

Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most employers are aware that employee handbook rules that impede employees\u2019 abilities to engage in protected concerted activity \u2013 e.g., organizing unions, discussing wages, discipline or other terms and conditions of employment \u2013 run afoul of rights guaranteed by Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Under the prior administration the National Labor […]<\/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":[139],"class_list":["post-3534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights","category-labor-employment-insights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNLRB Changes Course And Issues New Common Sense Guidance For Employer Handbook Rules — July 27, 2018 — Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper, P.C. 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