NLRB Issues Guidance on E-Mail Restrictions

In a recent memorandum, the NLRB's General Counsel has provided guidance on how the Board will evaluate restrictions on email usage.  

In December 2007, the National Labor Relations Board held that an employer did not commit an unfair labor practice by maintaining a policy prohibiting the use of its e-mail system for all “non-job-related solicitations,” including pro-union activity. The Guard Publishing Company, d/b/a The Register Guard, 351 NLRB No. 70 (2007).

A recent memorandum authored by the Board’s General Counsel provides some guidance as to how the Board will evaluate similar restrictions on e-mail usage in the light of Register Guard. Some highlights:

• If an employer permits a union that represents its employees to use the employer’s e-mail system, it may place reasonable limits upon that use. For example, if a union represents employees at a specific facility and is given permission to use the employer’s e-mail system, it is not an unfair labor practice for the employer to adopt a rule barring the union from using the e-mail system to communicate with company managers outside the facility.
  
  
• An apparently valid company policy banning non-job-related e-mail solicitations may run afoul of the Act under two circumstances. First, if the employer promulgated the rule for anti-union reasons, the policy will violate the Act. Second, if a neutral policy is administered in an inconsistent fashion and overly burdens union-related communications, the Board is likely to find an unfair labor practice.

A copy of the NLRB memo is available here.

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Categories: Ohio