NLRB Counsel Returns Common Sense To Workplace Rules

The National Labor Relations Board General Counsel, Peter Robb, recently outlined the agency's plan of action for evaluating workplace rules in his latest memorandum to regional offices—and the message is welcome news for employers. The 20-page memo is a reaction to the Board's December 2017 decision in Boeing Co. that upended the controversial Lutheran Heritage standard and helped start to restore balance to workplace rules. This memo takes the next step in that process.

In an effort to take back a certain modicum of control and privacy, the June 6 memo, titled " Memorandum GC 18-04: Guidance on Handbook Rules Post-Boeing," provides a roadmap for employers to defend their commonplace rules, which faced severe attacks under the Obama-era Board. During that period, the Board often presumed that otherwise standard workplace rules were ambiguous in meaning and thus susceptible to attack under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (which prevents employers