Policy Against Employees Linking to Employer Websites From Personal Blogs Is a Lawful Boeing Category 1(a) Rule: NLRB | Practical Law

Policy Against Employees Linking to Employer Websites From Personal Blogs Is a Lawful Boeing Category 1(a) Rule: NLRB | Practical Law

In Shamrock Foods Co., the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) held that a rule discouraging employees from linking to the employer's website from personal blogs was a lawful Boeing Category 1(a) rule.

Policy Against Employees Linking to Employer Websites From Personal Blogs Is a Lawful Boeing Category 1(a) Rule: NLRB

by Practical Law Labor & Employment
Law stated as of 02 Aug 2023 • USA (National/Federal)
In Shamrock Foods Co., the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) held that a rule discouraging employees from linking to the employer's website from personal blogs was a lawful Boeing Category 1(a) rule.
NOTE: See the UPDATE at the end of this resource for subsequent developments affecting this decision.
On July 29, 2020, in Shamrock Foods Co., the panel (Board) heading the NLRB's judicial functions held that a policy discouraging employees from linking to the employer's external or internal website from personal blogs was a lawful Boeing Category 1(a) rule.
A reasonable employee reading the policy as a whole, including the savings clauses disclaiming any intention of impacting Section 7 rights under the NLRA both in the policy and at the end of the employee handbook containing the policy, would understand that the employer intended:
  • To protect brand identity, integrity, and reputation and minimize actual or potential legal risks by preventing the public from getting the impression, based on the links to its websites, that:
    • the employer is associated with or endorses an employee's personal blog; or
    • the employee blogger is speaking on the employer's behalf.
  • Not to restrict employees' union and other protected activities.
(369 N.L.R.B. No. 140 (July 29, 2020).)
Employers should consider the Board's analysis when drafting or reviewing these types of policies and employee handbooks.

UPDATE

On August 2, 2023, a Board majority adopted a new burden-shifting standard for evaluating facial challenges to employer work rules that do not expressly restrict employees' protected concerted activity under Section 7 of the NLRA, overruling Boeing and the subsequent work rules decisions applying the categorical classification system articulated therein (Stericycle, Inc., 372 N.L.R.B. No. 113 (Aug. 2, 2023); for more information on this decision, see Article, The NLRB's New, Developing Standard for Assessing Lawfulness of Work Rules).