The National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") held recently that several of DirecTV's employment policies violated Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA") because those policies unlawfully restricted employee communications that are protected by the NLRA. The NLRB held that policies prohibiting employees' contact with the media and requiring employees to contact public relations personnel before speaking to the media unlawfully restricted protected communications. The NLRB also found that the company's confidentiality rules, which prohibited releasing information concerning the "job," fellow employees, and employee records, were unlawful and overbroad.
Additionally, the NLRB found that a provision limiting employees' direct contact with law enforcement was unlawfully overbroad to the extent that it restricted employee communications with the NLRB or other law enforcement officials about wages, hours, and working conditions. The company's intranet policy, which prohibited blogging and other social media postings about "company information," was also found to be overbroad as read in conjunction with the company's confidentiality policy in its handbook.
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