Employers can prohibit the use by employees of the names, social security numbers, and credit card numbers of customers in furtherance of organizational activities. This ruling came after the NLRB scrutinized the employer’s definition of confidential information and policies covering “Use of Personal Data” and “Confidentiality and Acceptable Use of Company Systems.” The company defined…

Some workers at Tesla’s Freemont, California electric car factory are following a common play from the union organizing handbook: file specious unfair labor practice charges. Unions often file these to increase the employer’s cost of defending against unionization, to throw red herrings at the employer during the organizing campaign, and to foster media interest in…

The National Labor Relations Board has been clear that companies cannot impose a blanket confidentiality rule on employees during investigations. However, it seems that employers are still having difficulty with this new standard. In a recent case, a hospital used company forms that requested that employees interviewed during company investigations keep the interviews confidential and…

Two employees hacked into their employer’s information system and gathered the contact information of other employees to use during a union organizing drive. Disgruntled employees who were contacted by the union questioned how the union received their contact information. The company terminated the two employees after concluding that they had breached the company’s confidentiality rule…

According to an Administrative Law Judge, a Washington state company did not violate the National Labor Relations Act by requiring its employees to maintain the confidentiality of “human resources related information” and “investigations by outside agencies (formal and informal), as well as supplier lists, prices, and marketing plans.” But on appeal, the NLRB overruled the…

The Board recently shot down a confidentiality policy maintained by a California elementary school founded by Hollywood director James Cameron and his wife as being overly broad. The policy prohibited employees from disclosing any information about the school or its owners, students, or employees. It also said that former employees were precluded from making any…