{"id":227864,"date":"2025-05-07T01:54:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T01:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/legal\/new-nlrb-handbook-rules-means-many-employer-handbook-provisions-are-illegal\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T01:54:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T01:54:04","slug":"new-nlrb-handbook-rules-means-many-employer-handbook-provisions-are-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=227864","title":{"rendered":"New NLRB Handbook Rules Means Many Employer Handbook Provisions Are Illegal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body-3530329100876968227\" itemprop=\"description articleBody\">\n<p>NLRB has issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlrb.gov\/news-outreach\/news-story\/board-adopts-new-standard-for-assessing-lawfulness-of-work-rules\">new standard<\/a> for evaluating employer work rules and employer handbooks. It applies to non-union and union workplaces that are covered under the National Labor Relations Act, which means most employers are covered. Under the new standard, the person challenging a rule or handbook provision must prove that the challenged rule has a reasonable tendency to chill employees from exercising their rights to engaged in concerted activity to discuss or change working conditions. If so, then the rule is presumptively unlawful.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, the employer may rebut the presumption by proving that the rule advances a legitimate and substantial business interest and that the employer is unable to advance that interest with a more narrowly tailored rule.<\/p>\n<p>This is a sea change from the prior standard, and it will make it much easier for employees to challenge rules. The new standard appeared in a case where the following rules were successfully challenged:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li>Confidentiality of investigations<\/li>\n<li>Limiting personal calls and emails to family emergencies<\/li>\n<li>No personal electronic devices or cell phones to be kept in lockers and used only on breaks<\/li>\n<li>No behavior that harms the business reputation of the company<\/li>\n<li>No activity that adversely reflects on the integrity of the company<\/li>\n<li>No photos<\/li>\n<li>No recordings<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If these sound familiar, it&#8217;s because similar rules are in many company handbooks. If they&#8217;re in yours, you may be able to file an NLRB charge against employer if you want to challenge the rule.<\/p>\n<p>The Board explained how to evaluate a &#8220;chilling effect&#8221;:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In determining whether an employer\u2019s rules or policies restrict or chill employee\u2019s rights to engage in protected activity, one must consider if: \u201c(1) employees<br \/>\nwould reasonably construe the language to prohibit Section 7<br \/>\nactivity; (2) the rule was promulgated in response to union<br \/>\nactivity; (3) or the rule has been applied to restrict the exercise of Section 7 rights.\u201d Lutheran Heritage Village\u2014Livonia, 343<br \/>\nNLRB 646, 646\u2013647 (2004). Where a rule or policy explicitly<br \/>\nrestricts Section 7 activity or can be reasonably read to restrict<br \/>\nsuch activity, the Board is required to evaluate the employer\u2019s<br \/>\nasserted business justification \u201c[t]o strike a proper balance between the employees\u2019 rights and the Respondent\u2019s business<br \/>\njustification.\u201d Caesar\u2019s Palace, 336 NLRB 271, 272 (2001).<br \/>\nThe Board must accommodate the respective rights of the parties \u201cwith as little destruction of one as is consistent with the<br \/>\nmaintenance of the other.\u201d NLRB v. Babcock &amp; Wilcox Co.,<br \/>\n351 U.S. 105, 112 (1956).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I know. Blah, blah, blah. What this means is if you would think a rule prohibited you from engaging in discussions or activities with coworkers regarding working conditions, it&#8217;s probably illegal. If the rule was made because of union activity or because employees were discussing a potential union, it&#8217;s probably illegal. If the rule has been applied to restrict employees&#8217; ability to discuss or take action together regarding working conditions, it&#8217;s probably illegal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Some rules that may well be affected by this ruling, in addition to the ones I mention above, include:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li>Not saying negative things about the company<\/li>\n<li>Restricting social media use and comments about the company<\/li>\n<li>Limiting or regulating the ability of employees to make safety complaints<\/li>\n<li>Restricting meetings or discussions with coworkers<\/li>\n<li>Restricting the circulation of petitions<\/li>\n<li>Prohibiting or limiting comments to the media or government agencies<\/li>\n<li>Prohibiting insubordination<\/li>\n<li>General civility rules<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You don&#8217;t have to be disciplined under these rules in order to challenge them. So if you think a rule is illegal, you can contact the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlrb.gov\">NLRB <\/a>about it. If you have been fired for violating a rule you think may be illegal, especially if you were fired for discussing working conditions with coworkers, contact an <a href=\"http:\/\/exchange.nela.org\/findalawyer\">employee-side employment lawyer in your state<\/a> about your rights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NLRB has issued a new standard for evaluating employer work rules and employer handbooks. It applies to non-union and union workplaces that are covered under the National Labor Relations Act, which means most employers are covered. Under the new standard, the person challenging a rule or handbook provision must prove that the challenged rule has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[11090,4064,23116,7519,30655,27119,11149],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-227864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal","tag-employer","tag-handbook","tag-illegal","tag-means","tag-nlrb","tag-provisions","tag-rules"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New NLRB Handbook Rules Means Many Employer Handbook Provisions Are Illegal - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=227864\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New NLRB Handbook Rules Means Many Employer Handbook Provisions Are Illegal - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NLRB has issued a new standard for evaluating employer work rules and employer handbooks. 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