NLRB General Counsel Issues Handbook on Handbook Rules

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Peter Robb has released a new Guidance Memorandum specifying how NLRB regional offices receiving claims of improper employment policies are to interpret employer workplace rules, reports Labor Relations Update . In the case of NLRB's decision in The Boeing Company , the board set up a new and more employer-friendly standard for the legality of employee work rules, requiring regional offices to no longer interpret ambiguous rules against the drafter or generalized provisions as barring all activity that could conceivably be included within the rule. The offices will now check whether a rule would be interpreted as prohibiting Section 7 activity, rather than whether it could conceivably be so interpreted. Before Boeing , employers had been less eager to ban employee conduct when crafting handbook rules out of concern that those rules could be construed as possibly infringing on Section 7 rights. Robb's Guidance Memorandum explains how certain types of workplace rules would fall within the three-category analysis the board espoused in Boeing . The memo offers a preview in how a regional office would prosecute a potential unfair labor practice charge brought by an employee or union. Robb noted regions will not interpret ambiguities in rules against the drafter, which should lead to fewer charges brought against employers in this area, provided employers follow Robb's advice when drafting their employee handbooks.