You've Got Mail - The NLRB Rules that Employees Can Use Employer Email for Union Organizing

On December 11, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board held that employees have the right to use their employer’s email system for non-­business purposes, including sending emails supporting union organizing. The only way that an employer can prohibit such use is if it denies all access to its email system to certain categories of employees (for example, hourly employees). But as long as an employee can use an employer’s email system for business purposes, he or she can also use the email system for union organizing or for complaining to other employees about wages and working conditions. The Board decision is Purple Communications, Inc., 361 NLRB No. 126 (December 11, 2014) which overturned the Board’s own 2007 precedent in Register Guard, 351 NLRB 1110 (2007).