NEW YORK—The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is considering reversing a seven-year-old ruling that currently prohibits employees from using the company e-mail systems to communicate about ways to work together to improve wages and working conditions.

The NLRB's general counsel has urged the board to reverse the 2007 decision, reasoning that e-mail is a primary way that employees communicate with each other. The NLRB is now considering the question as part of a case in which a union said a California communications company’s e-mail rule is too restrictive and violates the rights the board should be protecting.

Members of the optical industry should take note of this, especially those who are non-union companies, labs and eyecare practices, and ask their professional associations to stand firmly to retain the current NLRB statue prohibiting employee use of company e-mail for purposes other than bonafide business purposes.

Hedley Lawson, Contributing Editor
Managing Partner
Aligned Growth Partners, LLC
(707) 217-0979
hlawson@alignedgrowth.com
www.alignedgrowth.com