Employee handbooks with seemingly innocuous policies can land your organization in trouble with federal officials. At least, that appears to be the message contained in a recent National Labor Relations Board ruling.
The board ruled that a company that makes machine products violated the National Labor Relations Act when it terminated the employment of a worker who warned another colleague about an imminent firing, The firm also was cited for maintaining two rules that might be read to chill protected speech.
The company was ordered to reinstate the first worker’s employment and remove provisions from its employee handbook that prohibit “insubordination or other disrespectful conduct” and “boisterous or other disruptive activity in the workplace.”
