Yesterday, I examined, in detail, the NLRB’s General Counsel’s memo on employer policies. Today, I’m going to examine a recent decision by an NLRB judge putting those principles to use.
The opinion [pdf] consolidated seven different unfair labor practice complaints against T-Mobile, challenging 17 different provisions in T-Mobile’s employee handbook, Restrictive Covenant and Confidentiality Agreement, and Code of Business Conduct.
More interesting than the work rules that the ALJ concluded violated employees’ section 7 rights are the work rules that the ALJ concluded did not.
Recording in the Workplace
Recall, yesterday, the NLRB-approved clause in the Wendy’s employee handbook, which provided employees a roadmap to their local NLRB regional office. In the T-Mobile case, the ALJ confirmed as legal the same type of policy—a workplace recording policy—without the NLRB boosterism.
Here’s the policy the ALJ approved in T-Mobile:
To prevent harassment, maintain individual privacy, encourage open communication, and protect confidential information employees are prohibited from recording people or confidential information using cameras, camera phones/devices, or recording devices (audio or video) in the workplace. Apart from customer calls that are recorded for quality purposes, employees may not tape or otherwise make sound recording of work-related or workplace discussions. Exceptions may be granted when participating in an authorized TMUS activity or with permission from an employee’s Manager, HR Business Partner, or the Legal Department. If an exception is granted, employees may not take a picture, audiotape, or videotape others in the workplace without the prior notification of all participants.
Apart from customer calls that are recorded for quality purposes, do not tape or otherwise make sound recordings of work-related or workplace discussions without the permission of all participants and Human Resources or the approval of the Legal Department. Failure to request and receive such permission violates Company policy and may violate the law.
Because of the risk presented by employee’s surreptitiously recording the workplace, the ALJ concluded that this policy did not impinge in employees’ section 7 rights:
The policy explicitly sets forth valid, nondiscriminatory, rationales for its existence. Concerns for safety, maintenance of a harassment free work environment, protection of trade secrets, and a workplace free from unnecessary distractions are all valid reasons for promulgating the rule. The policy expresses a rationale narrowly tailored to address these concerns; and there is no evidence of it being applied in a discriminatory manner. It is not unreasonable for the Employer to fear that a workplace with surreptitiously recorded conversations would foster hostility, suspicions, low morale, and impede free and open discussion among members of its work force. It would certainly hinder the open lines of communication between supervisors and employees because of fears that discussions could be secretly recorded for use against them at a later date.
Workplace Conduct
The ALJ also concluded that the following “Workplace Conduct” Policy was lawful:
Employees are expected to maintain a positive work environment by communicating in a manner that is conducive to effective working relationships with internal and external customers, clients, co-workers, and management.
Why?
Within the context of the policy, all employees would understand a prohibition against fighting to mean a physical altercation and by any standard, including the Act, fighting would be inappropriate in the workplace. I do not believe that the rule can reasonably be read as pertaining to Section 7 activity. In the words of the Board, “To ascribe such a meaning to these words is, quite simply, farfetched. Employees reasonably would believe that this rule was intended to reach serious misconduct, not conduct protected by the Act.”
Conclusion
Reading this decision in conjunction with the NLRB General Counsel’s Report confirms what I have believed for a long time—the NLRB is splitting hairs in drawing fine distinctions between employment policies that violate employees’ section 7 rights and those that don’t. Regardless of whether the Board and its judges are splitting hairs, you need to have these issues on your corporate radar. The T-Mobile issues got to the Board through efforts by the Communications Workers of America, which has been pushing for years for T-Mobile’s employees to join its union.
Don’t assume that a) your policies are good enough, or b) a labor union will not target your company. Unions are using the current pro-employee regulatory environment to ramp up their organizing efforts. If your company becomes a target, a union will use overly broad work rules as an inroad to the NLRB and to your employees. Act now to make sure your handbook and other policies pass NLRB muster, before someone (or something) else makes that decision for you.