iWilliam Beaumont Hospital (07-CA-093885; 363 NLRB No. 162) Royal Oak, MI, April 13, 2016.
A Board panel unanimously found that the Respondent lawfully maintained work rules that, among other things, prohibited employees from: making willful and intentional threats and engaging in intimidation, harassment, humiliation, or coercion of employees, physicians, patients, or visitors; using profane and abusive language directed at employees, physicians, patients or visitors; engaging in behavior that is rude, condescending or otherwise socially unacceptable; and engaging in behavior that is disruptive to maintaining a safe and healing environment. A panel majority, consisting of Members Hirozawa and McFerran, further found that the Respondent unlawfully maintained rules that prohibited employees from engaging in conduct that “impedes harmonious interactions and relationships” and from making “negative or disparaging comments about the . . . professional capabilities of an employee or physician to employees, physicians, patients, or visitors.” Dissenting in part, Member Miscimarra would have found those prohibitions lawful. In addition, Member Miscimarra advocated that the Board abandon Lutheran Heritage Village-Livonia’s (343 NLRB 646-647 (2004)) analysis of work rules that are challenged on the basis that employees would reasonably construe them to restrict Section 7 activity. Specifically, he proposed a balancing approach that would weigh the potential adverse impact of a rule on protected activity against the legitimate justifications an employer may have for maintaining the rule. The majority declined to revisit established precedent.
