{"id":1269,"date":"2019-05-08T15:15:53","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T15:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/is-an-employee-handbook-confidential-nlrb-says-no\/"},"modified":"2019-05-08T15:15:53","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T15:15:53","slug":"is-an-employee-handbook-confidential-nlrb-says-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/is-an-employee-handbook-confidential-nlrb-says-no\/","title":{"rendered":"Is an Employee Handbook Confidential? NLRB Says No"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many employers have rules stating that their employee handbooks and the policies contained within them are confidential. \u00a0A recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlrb.gov\/\">National Labor Relations Board<\/a> (\u201cNLRB\u201d) advisory guidance <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/memo.pdf\">memo<\/a> says that such a rule runs afoul of the National Labor Relations Act (\u201cNLRA\u201d).\u00a0 Why?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/new-independent-contractor-test-under-the-nlra\/\">NLRB<\/a> says that a policy that treats an employee handbook as confidential effectively precludes employees from discussing handbook policies regarding employee pay, benefits, and working conditions with unions and other third parties.\u00a0 Such a rule is problematic, because employees, <em>even in non-union workforces<\/em>, have rights under Section 7 of the NLRA to discuss their terms and conditions of employment with other employees.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Employee Handbooks: What is the NLRB\u2019s Standard? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In its decision in\u00a0<em>The Boeing Company<\/em>, 365 NLRB No. 154 (Dec. 14, 2017), the NLRB established a new standard that focuses on the balance between the rule&#8217;s negative impact on employees&#8217; ability to exercise their Section 7 rights and the rule&#8217;s connection to employers&#8217; right to maintain discipline and productivity in their workplace.<\/p>\n<p>The Foreword to the handbook the NLRB analyzed in the guidance states in part, that \u201c[t]his handbook and the information in it should be treated as confidential. No portion of this handbook should be disclosed to others, except [the Employer\u2019s] employees and others affiliated with [the Employer] whose knowledge of the information is required in the normal course of business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The NLRB concluded that the rule\u2019s adverse impact on Section 7 rights outweighs the Employer\u2019s business justification of protecting confidentiality of its policies.\u00a0 The NLRB opined that an employer could lawfully prohibit the disclosure of certain confidential information (if it is actually confidential) without having a blanket policy prohibiting the disclosure of all of its policies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Time to Review Policies in Employee Handbooks <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The NLRB\u2019s guidance opinion is a reminder that employees \u2013 even those who are not represented by a union &#8212; have rights under the NLRA. Employers, therefore, must be aware of the NLRA\u2019s provisions including those that apply to employer policies. The guidance memo is clear that employers should remove any policy statements that their entire handbook is confidential. \u00a0In addition, other policies should be reviewed and revised, if necessary, to ensure that they do not prohibit employees from discussing the terms and conditions of their employment with other employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many employers have rules stating that their employee handbooks and the policies contained within them are confidential. \u00a0A recent National Labor Relations Board (\u201cNLRB\u201d) advisory guidance memo says that such a rule runs afoul of the National Labor Relations Act (\u201cNLRA\u201d).\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 The NLRB says that a policy that treats an employee handbook as confidential [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10],"tags":[235],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is an Employee Handbook Confidential? NLRB Says No - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is an employee handbook confidential? Many employers have rules stating that their employee handbooks and policies contained within them are confidential.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/is-an-employee-handbook-confidential-nlrb-says-no\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is an Employee Handbook Confidential? NLRB Says No - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is an employee handbook confidential? 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