In a significant departure from prior precedent, on Dec. 11, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board ruledin the Purple Communications case that employers cannot prohibit employees from using their employer’s email systems during nonworking time in order to communicate about wages, hours and working conditions.
Explicitly included within this ruling is the newly recognized right of employees to use employer email for union organizing. Communications about such matters—frequently referred to as §7 rights—derive from fundamental guarantees under the National Labor Relations Act that protect employees who engage in “protected concerted activities.” The 3-to-2 decision by the Board’s five current members overturns the 2007 decision in Register Guard, which held that employees have no statutory right to use employer email systems other than as permitted by the employer.
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