In a welcome decision out of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the court has reversed major parts of an overreaching ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The decision by the appeals court in T-Mobile USA, Inc. v. NLRB, No. 16-60284 (5th Cir. July 25, 2017), overturned the NLRB’s conclusions that four of the company’s workplace conduct policies violated federal labor law. The court found instead that three out of the four policies could not be read by a reasonable employee as preventing participation in statutorily protected activity.
NT Lakis attorneys previously reported on the NLRB’s T-Mobile ruling in 2016 as a classic example of how the Board in recent years has strayed from its traditional role in resolving labor-management disputes to expanding the reach of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to outlaw sensible employer workplace conduct policies.
The four policies at issue here were (1) a policy that encouraged employees to behave in a professional manner; (2) a commitment-to-integrity policy which prohibited misconduct including arguing, fighting, and failing to treat others with respect; (3) an acceptable use policy which prohibited access to non-public or proprietary electronic information by non-approved individuals; and (4) a recording policy which prohibited all photography and recordings (audio and video).
In finding that the first three of these policies did not violate the NLRA, the Fifth Circuit stressed that policies such as these that are designed to ensure workplace civility, promote professionalism, and prevent misconduct do not violate the NLRA. The court did uphold the Board’s finding with respect to the recording policy.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.