Employees Can Use Employers’ Email Systems for Protected Activity

NLRB decision applies retroactively

In a controversial but not unexpected decision, reversing precedent, a majority of the National Labor Relations Board held that absent special circumstances that justify specific restrictions, employers must permit employees who have been provided access to their employer’s email system to use email for statutorily protected communications on their nonworking time

Purple Communications, Inc., 361 NLRB No. 126 (December 11, 2014). The decision applies retroactively. Details on this case and recommendations for how employer’s should adjust their policies and practices regarding email systems are provided in a recent blog post from the law firm of Jackson Lewis.