{"id":16301,"date":"2015-02-13T09:43:44","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T14:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2015\/02\/business-report-office-email-impacted-by-nlrb-ruling.html"},"modified":"2015-02-13T09:43:44","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T14:43:44","slug":"business-report-office-email-impacted-by-nlrb-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2015\/02\/business-report-office-email-impacted-by-nlrb-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Report: Office Email Impacted By NLRB Ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\"subhash\n<\/div>\n
Subhash Viswanathan, employment law attorney with Bond, Schoeneck & King\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

BY SUBHASH VISWANATHAN<\/p>\n

On Dec. 11, the National Labor Relations
\nBoard issued a 3-2 decision in Purple Communications
\nInc., holding that employees have a
\npresumptive right to use their employer’s email
\nsystem during non-working time to communicate
\nregarding union organizing and to engage
\nin other protected concerted activities under
\nSection 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.<\/p>\n

The board’s decision overruled a 2007 decision.<\/p>\n

The ruling involved Purple Communications
\nin California. Its electronic communications
\npolicy provided systems and equipment were
\n“to facilitate company business” and that “all
\nsuch equipment and access should be used for
\nbusiness purposes only.”
\nThe policy also prohibited employees from
\nusing it to engage “in activities on behalf of
\norganizations or persons with no professional or
\nbusiness affiliation with the company” and from
\nsending “uninvited email of a personal nature.”
\nThere was no dispute that, under the board’s
\n2007 decision, the policy was perfectly lawful
\nas written.<\/p>\n

In the fall of 2012, the Communications
\nWorkers of America filed petitions to represent
\nemployees at seven of Purple Communications’
\nfacilities. After an election was held, the union
\nfiled objections to the results of the election at
\ntwo facilities and an unfair labor practice charge,
\nalleging (among other things) that the electronic
\ncommunications policy interfered with the employees’
\nSection 7 rights.<\/p>\n

An administrative law judge, relying on the
\nboard’s 2007 decision, found the electronic
\ncommunications policy to be lawful. The board
\nmajority, however, found that decision improperly
\nplaced too much weight on the property rights
\nof employers in their own email systems and too
\nlittle weight on the Section 7 right of employees to communicate in the workplace about their
\nterms and conditions of employment.<\/p>\n

The majority also believed that the decision
\nfailed to recognize the importance of email as a
\nmeans by which employees engage in protected
\ncommunications. Therefore, the majority overruled
\nand held that employees have a presumptive
\nright to use their employer’s email system
\nduring non-working time to engage in communications
\nprotected by Section 7 of the Act.<\/p>\n

The NLRB made clear that this presumption
\napplies only to employees who have been granted
\naccess to the employer’s email system in the
\ncourse of their work and does not require an
\nemployer to provide access to its email system to
\nemployees who do not otherwise need it.<\/p>\n

In addition, the NLRB held that an employer
\nmay rebut the presumption and justify a total ban on non-business use of its e-mail system
\nby demonstrating that “special circumstances
\nmake the ban necessary to maintain production
\nor discipline.”<\/p>\n

Virtually no guidance is provided in the
\ndecision regarding what those “special circumstances”
\nmight be, but the board majority stated
\nthat “we anticipate that it will be the rare case
\nwhere special circumstances justify a total ban
\non non-work e-mail use by employees.”<\/p>\n

NLRB remanded the case back to the administrative
\nlaw judge for a determination of whether
\nPurple Communications could successfully rebut
\nthe presumption and justify the scope of its prohibition
\non the personal use of email.<\/p>\n

The restriction that employees may use their
\nemployer’s email system for Section 7 purposes
\nonly during non-working time raises a significant
\nquestion: Can an employer monitor employee
\nuse of its e-mail systems during working time
\nto ensure compliance with this restriction and
\ndiscipline employees who are found to have engaged
\nin Section 7 activity through e-mail during
\nworking time, without risking potential liability
\nfor unlawful surveillance or discrimination based
\non union activities?<\/p>\n

According to the NLRB decision, an employer
\nmay continue to notify employees that they
\nshould have no expectation of privacy in their
\nuse of the employer’s e-mail system and may
\ncontinue to monitor the use of its email system
\nfor legitimate business purposes. However, the
\nboard stated that this monitoring is lawful only if “the employer does nothing out of the ordinary.”<\/p>\n

For example, the decision leaves open the
\npossibility that an employer’s increased monitoring
\nduring a union organizing campaign or
\nan employer’s particular focus on employees
\nwho are known union activists could result in
\npotential liability under Sections 8(a)(1) or
\n8(a)(3) of the Act.<\/p>\n

In the view of the dissenting NLRB voters, an
\nemployer’s interests in controlling the use of its
\nown electronic communications system should
\nprevail over employees’ interests in using that
\nsystem for union organizing activities, especially
\nin light of the availability of other electronic communications
\nnetworks such as employees’ own
\npersonal email and social media sites.<\/p>\n

Many employers’ electronic communications
\npolicies already permit employees to engage in
\nsome limited personal use of email systems as
\nlong as that personal use does not interfere with
\nthe employee’s work duties or the work duties of
\nother employees.<\/p>\n

This type of policy may very well be lawful
\neven under the Purple Communications decision,
\nbecause, on its face, it likely would not
\nbe interpreted to prohibit Section 7 protected
\nactivity during non-working time. At this point,
\nhowever, if your electronic communications
\npolicy contains a blanket prohibition on the use
\nof your email system for personal reasons, you
\nmay want to consider potential revisions.<\/p>\n

Viswanathan is a labor and employment law
\nattorney with Bond, Schoeneck & King.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo Courtesy Bond Schoeneck & King<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Subhash Viswanathan, employment law attorney with Bond, Schoeneck & King BY SUBHASH VISWANATHAN On Dec. 11, the National Labor Relations Board issued a 3-2 decision in Purple Communications Inc., holding that employees have a presumptive right to use their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[66,107],"class_list":["post-16301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-reports","tag-business-news","tag-legal"],"yoast_head":"\r\nBusiness Report: Office Email Impacted By NLRB Ruling - Glens Falls Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2015\/02\/business-report-office-email-impacted-by-nlrb-ruling\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Business Report: Office Email Impacted By NLRB Ruling - 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