In a closely watched case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled recently that an employer’s broadly worded confidentiality agreement restricting information that employees were permitted to discuss violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
The decision by the court in Banner Health System v. NLRB, No. 15-1245 (D.C. Cir. Mar. 24, 2017), upheld in part a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), but sent a second and more crucial issue in the case — whether an employer violates the NLRA by imposing a blanket nondisclosure policy on employee-witnesses during ongoing workplace investigations — back to the NLRB for further consideration. The NLRB had ruled that any nondisclosure policy imposed on employees during internal investigations violates the NLRA absent a showing by the employer of a legitimate and substantial business justification that outweighs the employee’s NLRA rights.
A copy of the D.C. Circuit’s decision in Banner Health is available here.
Members of the Equal Employment Advisory Council (EEAC) can read more here.