NLRB Efforts to Interpret Employer Policies in a More Reasonable Manner

In a memo to the NLRB regional offices in late February, NLRB General Counsel Crystal Carey told regional NLRB officials to reduce efforts to police employer handbooks and workplace rules.  She stated that the Agency’s current priority is to reduce its large case load by being more discriminating in its challenges to employer handbook policies.  The Agency will continue to challenge rules that clearly suppress workers’ rights, such as bans on discussing pay, but may not go after rules on the margins of the Board’s test for offending policies, nor will NLRB agents normally  seek copies of employer’s handbooks in cases where they are not relevant. 

Coincidentally, the NLRB itself, in early March, spoke in a case for the first time about workplace rules since gaining a Republican majority, reversing a precedent set during the Biden NLRB era.   The current Board found a contract provision requiring employees to keep the subject and materials of arbitration proceedings confidential, as lawful.  The “gag” order in the company’s arbitration agreement should be evaluated under a doctrine from President Trump’s first administration, not a more-recent standard addressing handbook provisions during the Biden Administration.  The Board also noted that the agreement in question contained a savings clause that said it shall not prohibit the discussion of workplace terms and conditions, thus making the provision “appropriately limited in scope,” according to the March NLRB ruling.  Pfizer Inc., NLRB Case No. 10-CA-175850, 3/4/26.

This article is part of our April 2026 Newsletter. 

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