Executive Summary: In a 20-page
memorandum dated June 6, 2018, National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB) General Counsel Peter Robb issued guidance to the Regions on
handbook rules in light of the Board's decision in The
Boeing Company, 365 NLRB No. 154 (Dec. 14, 2017).
As discussed in our December 19, 2017
Alert, in Boeing, the Board re-evaluated the standard
concerning when maintaining a work rule violates Section 8(a)(1) of
the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). A new standard that
focuses on the negative impact on the employees' ability to
exercise their Section 7 rights and the rule's connection to
the employers' right to maintain discipline and productivity in
their workplace was born. Boeing not only added the
balancing test, it significantly altered the Board's
jurisprudence on the reasonable interpretation of handbook rules.
Following Boeing, the Board will no longer interpret
ambiguities in rules against the drafter, nor will it interpret
generalized
