Following new decision, your handbook may be unlawful and need revision

Two years ago, in a memo issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the agency’s general counsel signaled that one of the Board’s main priorities would be to scrutinize whether certain workplace policies unlawfully infringed on employees’ rights to engage in protected activity under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

Common examples of protected activity include organizing and joining a union, as well as discussing the terms and conditions of one’s employment. On August 2, the Board made good on that promise, reversing the more employer-friendly standard that had been in place since 2017 and adopting a new standard that potentially calls into question the lawfulness of many employer policies.