More Freedom with Employee Handbooks

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Employers can expect the National Labor Relations Board to subject their employee handbooks to far less scrutiny than in the past. For instance, employee-handbook civility rules will generally be found valid. Lawful civility rules might state, for example:

• Behavior that is rude, condescending or otherwise socially unacceptable is prohibited.

• Disparaging the company's employees is prohibited.

• Employees may not post any statements, photographs, video or audio that reasonably could be viewed as disparaging to workers.

• Rules against defamation or misrepresentation are also generally allowed. Examples of such rules are:

  • Misrepresenting the company's products, services or employees is prohibited.

  • E-mail messages that are defamatory are prohibited.

This means if you want to add a civility statement in your handbook you can now update the language in your Employee Handbook to include it.