Hello, and welcome to LegalEase. Today’s topic is about the National Labor Relations Board and your employee handbook. Let’s talk about it.

The National Labor Relations Board has a new rule, and employers will not like it. The new rule states that any employer policy that “potentially limits” an employee’s Section 7 rights is presumed to be unlawful.

What are Section 7 rights? Remember, we talked about this in a prior segment. A Section 7 right is basically an employee’s right to gather and discuss terms and conditions of employment. Employees have the right to gather to have these discussions. If an employer has a policy that prohibits this gathering, then the policy violates the law.

Now, the National Labor Relations Board has extended this rule to state that if an employer’s policy or procedure “potentially limits” the exercise of an employee’s rights, then the policy will be presumed to be a  violation of the law. That basically means that if the policy could versus if it would.

How can employers handle this?

Review your handbooks almost immediately because claims can be made based on existing polices, as of today. Some specific policies you should review include, social media, any policy about recording meetings, non-disparagement, confidentiality of investigations, any policy about corporate civility, or a policy about restricting community actions – review  any policies that pertain to how employees can express themselves, gripe about work, record you, and then gripe later.

If you need help with the review of your policies, give us a call. Our link is always in the bio, and you can schedule a consultation through our website. Thank you for joining LegalEase.