‘Who’s coming over?’ Hopefully it’s not the NLRB
When my kids were young and our household was chaotic, they would occasionally see me frantically cleaning up and ask, “Who’s coming over?”
While sticking to a rigid clean-up schedule may have taught them valuable organizational skills, I don’t think there was any actual harm in my “haphazard panicked tidying for guests” housecleaning method.
In the workplace, however, meticulous regular tidying is beneficial. At least it proved to be for a well-known technology company.
At one of the company’s retail stores in New York City, union flyers were repeatedly removed from breakroom tables and thrown away. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) viewed tossing the flyers as a violation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The NLRA gives workers the right to unionize and prevents employers from interfering with those who exercise that right.
The 5th Circuit Court ruled against the NLRB, however. Why? Because, they said, “store leaders routinely remove visible trash to convey ownership over, and pride in, the workplace.”
The key word there is “routinely.” They weren’t doing anything unusual by getting rid of flyers left on the tables.
In addition, the store had a policy which said employees were not permitted to “distribute materials or solicit employees, vendors, or customers on store property at any time.” Store leaders argued that the policy was enforced consistently. Any written materials left lying around, including fast food coupons or newspapers, as well as union flyers, were regularly swept up and trashed.
The lesson here for employers is that if you have policies, enforce them consistently; it’s best to stick to a consistent cleaning routine rather than going into panic tidying mode when a flyer you don’t like catches your attention. That way, when employees see you gathering up and throwing away papers left on breakroom tables they won’t ask, “Who’s coming over?”
It’s also important to know that “cleaning up the breakroom” doesn’t apply to conversations. Employers may not prohibit employees from discussing wages or unionization.
While this court ruled that picking up trash in the breakroom consistently is fine, disciplining an employee for the lunchtime activity of discussing unionization would be an unfair labor practice and could trigger a charge from the NLRB. An acceptable course of action if unionizing activity is observed would be for management to follow NLRB guidelines for a counter campaign if they wish.
