NLRB Division, Some "At-Will" Clauses Ok

The Board's excruciatingly close scrutiny of employer policies continues as the agency looks for opportunities to expand its juridiction by rooting out all evil lurking in handbooks and other written employment policies.  The NLRB has taken the position that certain "at-will" language in handbooks, language that in various forms exists in virtually every private employer's handbook in the United States, is unlawful because an employee might interpret such language as restricting his or her rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

The implications of this new tack taken by the Board are interesting.  These at-will policies have been in handbooks for years.  In those same years literally thousands of representation petitions have been filed, presumably the vast majority of which involved workplaces with at-will policies in some form or another.  The Acting General Counsel seems to have concluded, on his own, that more organizing or concerted activity would have