NLRB Requires Every Voting Employees’ Contact Info, Where Do You Keep It?

The Ambush Elections rules obligate employers to provide employees’ personal phone numbers and personal email addresses if such data is “available” to the employer. I put “available” in quotes because we recently learned that the definition of available is different for different people.

Prior to a union election, the employer provided the union with all of the personal phone and email addresses it had in its human resources computer system, which accounted for 94% of the bargaining unit. The human resources computer system did not have this data for the other 6%. The union appealed its defeat alleging that the missing 6% violated the new election rules. At the hearing, it was discovered that one of the employer’s supervisors maintained an independent list of email addresses and phone numbers separate from the human resources computer system, and the supervisor’s list contained the missing information.

Gone are the days when a simple roster print out from the HR Department satisfies a company’s burden to produce names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of its workers. Now, prudent employers periodically poll supervisors and others to ensure that a single, comprehensive list is maintained and regularly updated.

Matt Austin is a lawyer based in the Columbus, Ohio office of Roetzel & Andress, LPA who limits his practice to representing employers dealing with labor, employment, and OSHA matters. You can call Matt at (614) 723-2010 or email him at maustin@ralaw.com.