Employers Not Permitted to Ask Employees to 'Plan Nice', NLRB Ruling
This is from
Christian Schappel writing over at HR Morning:
After a union cried foul about some of T-Mobiles policies, the NLRB dug into the telecommunication company’s employee handbook and rules.
And to no one’s surprise, the NLRB didn’t like what it saw.
For example, it said this policy was illegal:
“[T-Mobile] expects all employees to behave in a professional manner that promotes efficiency, productivity, and cooperation. Employees are expected to maintain a positive work environment by communicating in a manner that is conducive to effective working relationships with internal and external customers, clients, co-workers, and management.”
What’s wrong with essentially telling employees to “play nice” like this?
According to the NLRB, the rule violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which says employees must be free to engage in “concerted activities” — like discussions around working conditions.
It said T-Mobile employees could construe the clause as restricting controversial discussions — including those about unions and organized labor — because T-Mobile might not view such discussions as “positive.”...
Other common policies the NLRB has axed recently include:
