If you are in a nonunion work environment, it is possible you have no idea who the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is and what the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) states. But if you have a handbook or your employees use social media, that could be a problem.
Here is a quick primer on the NLRA and NLRB and a couple of reasons why you should care about them even if you do not have unions at work.
Basics
As stated on the NLRB website, the National Labor Relations Act was established "to protect the rights of employees and employers, to encourage collective bargaining, and to curtail certain private sector labor and management practices, which can harm the general welfare of workers, businesses and the U.S. economy."
Encourage collective bargaining and curtail certain management practices are phrases that should make any nonunion employer take notice. And the Act has been around since 1935, which means there has been plenty of time for it to be interpreted in a number of different and nuanced ways.
Most recently, social media has been carved out in many ways as a safe space for employees to gather and talk about their employer, under their right to organize (for collective bargaining purposes). As such, many employers unknowingly infringe upon this employee right with their prohibitive practices and statements about what can and cannot happen on social media.
Further, any employer with a handbook (which should be most of you) could easily have gone too far in trying to manage their employees' behavior. Last year, in an attempt to clarify what handbook language is prohibited according to the NLRA, the NLRB General Counsel wrote a letter (GC-1504). Many common practices that could be in jeopardy of being unlawful under the Act include confidentiality requirements, codes of conduct and restrictions on the use of marketing materials like logos, trademarks and even photographs.
Who are these people?
The National Labor Relations Board is the independent government agency that exists to enforce the NLRA. In other words, according to their website, they focus their work in five areas:
- Conduct elections (to create or dissolve unions)
- Investigate charges (of violations of the NLRA)
- Facilitate settlements (if a violation has occurred)
- Decide cases
- Enforce orders
The NLRB has done a lot of work trying to make it easier for employers to comply, but also for employees to complain if there is a potential problem. Like anything else in the workplace, these type of complaints can be lumped in with other issues unhappy employees might raise (like pay inaccuracies or FLSA misclassification).
As such, it best to make sure you have your ducks in a row before any potential problems arise.
Next steps
The best thing to do is to summarize (in your head) what you and your managers say and do when it comes to social media. Then, grab your handbook and any written documents that refer to appropriate or inappropriate employee behavior and call your attorney.
Review everything with them and take that little bit of time and effort to correct anything that is not a best practice. It will ensure you are compliant and your employees' rights are protected: a real win-win.
