A featured story on Employment Law This Week is the NLRB's crackdown on employers restricting the content of personal emails sent through the employer’s email system.
In 2014, the NLRB ruled that employees who have email through their employers can use that email to communicate about union-related issues. In a recent election at Blommer Chocolate Company, the union claimed that company email rules interfered with the voting process. Employees were allowed to use the company’s email system for personal emails, but were prohibited from expressing personal opinions in their emails to coworkers. The NLRB found that this rule interfered with elections and that a second election should occur. One of the questions that arises from this ruling is the issue of where the line is between what employers can prohibit - harassment, for example - and what they cannot.
View the episode below or read more about the NLRB's ruling in an earlier blog post.