NLRB & employer e-mail

The National Labor Relations Board back in December settled a long-standing dispute between employers and unions over controversies regarding a companies e-mail policies.

In its Dec. 16th. Guard Publishing decision the NLRB said that employers may lawfully control access & use of their internet e-mail systems and those systems can’t be used as “weapons” by a union seeking to organize their workforce.

NLRB did two things with that decision, according to a Law.com article this morning. First, it reaffirmed that “an employer had a ‘basic property right’ to restrict the use of its e-mail system,” and, second, it held that an employer doesn’t have to “prohibit all ‘nonbusiness’ e-mail in order to restrict a union’s use of its e-mail system.”

The board has always had a rule prohibiting ‘discriminatory’ enforcement of non-solicitation policies, but “decided to modify its approach in discriminatory enforcement cases to clarify that discrimination under the Act means drawing a distinction along Section 7 lines.”

National Labor Relations Act