Last week, an administrative law judge (ALJ) for the NLRB continued the Board’s trend of invalidating employer handbook policies. In the case at issue, the ALJ specifically found that T-Mobile maintained several policies in its handbook that “chilled” potential union activity, including a statement that provided, “This Handbook is a confidential and proprietary Company document, and must not be disclosed to or used by any third party without the prior written consent of the Company.”

The ALJ also held that other policies classifying “wage” information as confidential violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). This case again illustrates the need to keep abreast of the latest guidance from the NLRB to ensure company policies remain up-to-date.