National Labor Board Rules That Private-Sector Employees Likely Have Right to Share This Blog With Co-Workers
The National Labor Relations Act generally entitles most private-sector workers to join forces with co-workers about workplace conditions. The NLRA protects the right to organize and the right to communicate about organizing. The National Labor Relations Board once held that the NLRA “necessarily encompasses the right effectively to communicate with one another regarding self-organization at the jobsite."
An employer covered by the NLRA cannot prohibit all workplace communications by employees at work concerning a union or workplace issues. The NLRB has been particularly vigilant about protecting employee rights to discuss work issues with each other in non-work areas and/or non-work time. Similarly, an employer cannot permit conversations about nonwork issues (such as family, charities, religious activities) and prohibit discussions about work. Plus, an employer cannot, discriminate against employees based upon whether or how they exercise rights to join forces to improve their work.
The NLRB finally adopted the 1930s law to the 21st Century by interpreting the NLRA to allow most private sector employees to use work email to compare wages, benefits, supervision and performance evaluations, with one another. The NLRB's Purple Communications (attached) decision last week created a presumption that "[E]mployees who have been given access to the employer’s email system in the course of their work are entitled to use the system to engage in statutorily protected discussions about their terms and conditions of employment while on nonworking time, absent a showing by the employer of special circumstances that justify specific restrictions."
The decision does not require employers to offer work email to employees. It applies only when the employer already decided to offer this service. Plus, the decision entitles employees to use email for organizing purposes only during nonworking time (whether breaks or off-duty time).
