On December 11, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) overruled its previous 2007 decision that allowed employers to limit their employees’ use of the employer’s email system solely to business purposes. The recent ruling now recognizes employees’ rights to communicate with other employees through employer-provided email, during non-working time, regarding Section 7 rights such as self-organization and other terms and conditions of employment. The NLRB determined that the employer’s property rights over the equipment servicing email systems do not override the individual employee’s right to communicate in the workplace about the terms and conditions of their employment.

Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act allows employees the right to communicate with one another, at the job site, regarding self-organization. At issue in this case was whether the employees’ use of the employer’s email system was a permissible method of communication for such Section 7 activities where the employer had a policy in its employee handbook that specifically prohibited use of the employer’s email system for anything other than business purposes. The court found the handbook policy to be overbroad and in violation of Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act where the importance and common usage of email as a means of employee communication has dramatically increased since the NLRB’s previous 2007 ruling.

This recent ruling limited its discussion to email communication during non-working time and also does not require that an employer provide business email to employees if it doesn’t already. This ruling also left little room for uniform and consistently enforced restrictions on employee email usage in limited special circumstances.

This case dramatically alters the way the NLRB will evaluate email policies. Therefore, dealers should review their email policies to confirm whether they restrict personal use during non-working time. If they do, the NLRB will likely find that such policies violate the law.

If you need assistance in creating or revising an Email Usage Policy, please contact a member of the Dealer Practice Group at 248-645-9300 or by email.

Chuck LeFevre, Chair – [email protected]
Lawrence F. Raniszeski – [email protected]
Michael J. O’Shaughnessy – [email protected]
Eric R. Bowden – [email protected]
Alycia Pallach Wesley – [email protected]
Coriann Gastol – [email protected]