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The federal regulators of the National Labor Relations Board issued a ruling in 2007 that forbade employees from using their employers’ email systems for correspondence related to improving wages and working conditions. The board is now considering reversing that ruling, and has even asked for public input on their deliberation. They have received adamant—and often diametrically opposed—responses from business groups, unions, and even their own general counsel. The NLRB’s advisors are encouraging the NLRB to overturn their original decision. The rationale is that allowing employees to communicate about their employment concerns via their work email will not impede productivity or be a distraction, as some business group believe, but rather would serve to contribute to a fairer and more balanced work environment.
If the NLRB ultimately decides to reverse their 7-year-old decision, it will add a new page to established federal labor policy, and change the way employees communicate—whether they are unionized or not. However, such a reversal might also raise some interesting questions about the enforcement of the law as it pertains to workers’ rights, privacy issues, and other related concerns. Would an employer reading an employee’s email be classified as spying? If employees are granted the right to use company-owned email services to discuss workplace grievances, organize a union, etc., then do they, by extension, have the right to spend company time sitting around a conference room table (or water cooler) discussing the same matters? Would the new labor policy set a precedent in terms of how a company car may be used? It will be interesting to see whether the board’s decision ends up easing tensions between corporate management and workers, or only adds more complicated nuance to the challenge of addressing workplace issues.
If the NLRB ultimately decides to reverse their 7-year-old decision, it will add a new page to established federal labor policy, and change the way employees communicate—whether they are unionized or not. However, such a reversal might also raise some interesting questions about the enforcement of the law as it pertains to workers’ rights, privacy issues, and other related concerns. Would an employer reading an employee’s email be classified as spying? If employees are granted the right to use company-owned email services to discuss workplace grievances, organize a union, etc., then do they, by extension, have the right to spend company time sitting around a conference room table (or water cooler) discussing the same matters? Would the new labor policy set a precedent in terms of how a company car may be used? It will be interesting to see whether the board’s decision ends up easing tensions between corporate management and workers, or only adds more complicated nuance to the challenge of addressing workplace issues.