NLRB Rules to Give Workers Right to Use Employer Email for Union Organizing

Wall Street Journal ^ | 09/08/2015 | By MELANIE TROTTMAN

[SeekAndFind]

Employees with access to their employer’s email system have the right to use it for union organizing and other communications about wages and working conditions, but only during “nonworking time,” the National Labor Relations Board ruled Thursday.

The ruling overturns a 2007 board decision stating employees don’t have a statutory right to use their employer’s email system for such purposes. Since then, the board’s makeup has changed and the board’s three Democrats agreed to overturn the earlier decision. The two Republican members dissented.

The ruling, part of a rush of decisions the board is expected to make by Dec. 16, is a victory for labor unions, easing the way for employees to coordinate with each other about how to form or join a union.

Less clear is whether employees have the right to use the email systems to communicate directly with unions. The board said in its written ruling that, “We do not address email access by nonemployees.” Labor lawyers said employers can bar employees from using workplace email to communicate with third parties in certain circumstances, but it is a murky issue that could be litigated in future NLRB and court cases.

Businesses argued that reversing the 2007 ruling could violate employers’ property rights, congest servers, threaten worker productivity and infringe on companies’ First Amendment rights not to communicate the unwanted messages of others. They also said employees have personal email accounts they could use on their own devices.

[C. Edmund Wright]

The private market is loud and clear on unions....not no, but HELL no!

[dljordan]

How can the NLRB give the right to use another persons property?

[mazda77]

Past time to start hacking into their government owned computers for mouse tracks.

[pgyanke]

How can the NLRB give the right to use another persons property?

Exactly.

[Political Junkie Too]

This is wrong. Employer email systems are subpoenable documents. There is no expectation of privacy on employer email systems.

What's next, union demands that union business on employer email systems be considered private for union use only?

-PJ

[Alberta's Child]

What kind of employee would be dumb enough to use his company's e-mail system for this sort of thing?

Also, what would ever prevent an employer from automatically shutting down an employee's computer when he/she was "off the clock?"

[DH]

Drip, drip, drip.......the Communist/Marxist march toward the total destruction of our free way of life dribbles away one drip at a time thanks to our government’s move toward that way of life.

When the government tells a private company that it has lost control of its own operation and policies, it’s over...we have lost total control and freedom and liberty are the victims.

[Flick Lives]

Simple. Shut off the company’s outgoing email service after 5:00pm.

[DH]

How can the NLRB give the right to use another persons property?

---

The same way the government can throw an employee into jail for failing to follow the rules of her employer.

It’s over people! If something drastic does not occur in this next presidential election, close the door, get on your knees and await your punishment for being a white law abiding citizen.

[Senator_Blutarski]

Don’t employers have the right to look at any e-mail in their private system? Can’t employers use this to their advantage?

[griswold3]

Wait! I’m sure that we can vote these folks out of office the next round. What? These are unelected unaccountable bureaucrats that run the country behind the scenes? The ones that negate any election results?
Now what?