The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Workforce Freedom Initiative released a report called, Theater of the Absurd: The NLRB Takes on the Employee Handbook, which reviews cases where the NLRB negated workplace rules, amongst other things.

The author illustrated many examples of how the NLRB interprets policy language.  The report outlines cases where the NLRB found that policies against disruptive behavior like: intimidation, harassment, insubordination and profanity were unlawful. The study also looked at other cases where the agency voided policies requesting things like protecting trade secrets and confidentiality rules.

Some human resource experts feel as though the NLRB is using an interpretation of the National Labor Relations Act to negate commonplace handbook policies.

Below is a sample of company policies the NLRB has ruled on:

Illegal Handbook Policy: “You must not disclose proprietary or confidential information about [the Employer, or] other associates (if the proprietary or confidential information relating to [the Employer’s] associates was obtained in violation of law or lawful Company policy).”

Legal Handbook Policy: “Misuse or unauthorized disclosure of confidential information not otherwise available to persons or firms outside [Employer] is cause for disciplinary action, including termination.”

Illegal Handbook Policy: “[Be] respectful to the company, other employees, customers, partners, and competitors.”

Legal Handbook Policy: “Each employee is expected to work in a cooperative manner with management/supervision, co-workers, customers and vendors.”

HR experts aren’t really sure how the Chamber report will be received as the NLRB doesn’t appear to care about the report’s release or to be changing their course of actions.