Narrow Bans on Union Insignia in Patient Care Areas, Unlike Broad Bans, Not Presumptively Lawful: NLRB | Practical Law
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a decision in Saint John's Health Center, dated December 30, 2011, holding that a hospital violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by maintaining rules barring nurses from wearing certain union ribbons in patient areas and prohibiting off-duty employees from accessing interior areas of the hospital except at select times other than for hospital-sponsored events, even though it permitted access to select interior areas all of the time. Under the Board's decision, only blanket bans on all insignia in patient areas are presumptively valid, although an employer may be entitled to impose a narrow ban in patient areas by showing that special circumstances justify the narrow ban. Similarly, only blanket bans on off-duty employee access to interior working areas are presumptively valid.