Even if your company or firm is not unionized, new guidelines have been issued which could put your employee handbook in violation of federal law. These new guidelines may prohibit many of provisions common to employee handbooks in all industries and it is important to analyze and revise your handbooks where necessary. 

On March 18, 2015, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”), the federal agency in charge of unions and collective bargaining, issued new guidelines related to the National Labor Relations Act. Critically, these guidelines apply to ALL employers, not just those with unionized employees. The guidelines address work rules that may have a “chilling effect” on an employee’s ability to unionize or collectively bargain. The guidelines attempt to lay out what is and what is not permissible in an employee handbook. 

At first blush, this may not appear to apply to your company, but consider some of the provisions that the guidelines purport to prohibit:

  • Do not discuss “customer or employee information” outside of work, including “phone numbers [and] addresses.”
  • “Be respectful to the company, other employees, customers, partners, and competitors.”
  • “Refrain from any action that would harm persons or property or cause damage to the Company’s business or reputation.”
  • Do not make “insulting, embarrassing, hurtful or abusive comments about other company employees online,” and “avoid the use of offensive, derogatory, or prejudicial comments.”
  • Employees are not “authorized to speak to any representatives of the print and/or electronic media about company matters” unless designated to do so by HR, and must refer all media inquiries to the company media hotline.
  • Do “not use any Company logos, trademarks, graphics, or advertising materials” in social media.
  • “Taking unauthorized pictures or video on company property” is prohibited.
  • “Failure to report to your scheduled shift for more than three consecutive days without prior authorization or ‘walking off the job’ during a scheduled shift” is prohibited.
  • Employees may not engage in “any action” that is “not in the best interest of [the Employer].”

Remember, these prohibitions apply regardless of whether you employ unionized employees. Consider your own employee handbook. Does it contain the same or similar provisions?

If you have any questions about your company’s employee handbook and whether it could run afoul of these new guidelines, please contact Robert Luskin at Goodman McGuffey. 

The report can be found at http://apps.nlrb.gov/link/document.aspx/09031d4581b37135 or here