Overview
Steptoe Phoenix partner Steve Wheeless was quoted throughout an article in InBusiness Magazine titled “New Labor Rules Are Reason for Risk Assessment.” The article, published in the September 2015 issue, discusses the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) current focus on the non-unionized part of the National Labor Relations Act and how standard employer policies may now be determined to violate employee’s rights.
Mr. Wheeless, who also serves as management chair of the American Bar Association’s Developing Labor Law Committee, notes there are two primary areas that affect virtually all employers. One is human resources policies and procedures, both written and tacitly understood, affecting practices in investigations, solicitation, and civility and at-will policies.
“For instance, if an employer says, ‘We’re conducting an investigation and want to keep it confidential, so the investigation is not undermined by gossip,’ the labor board says you can’t do that. There’s a whole host of what many employers view as standard handbook policies this board has challenged, many successfully,” Mr. Wheeless says.
The full article can be read at InBusiness Magazine.
