The National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) issued its long-awaited decision regarding employer work rules that impacts both unionized and non-unionized workplaces. In Stericycle, the Board altered the standard for whether a seemingly neutral workplace rule is nevertheless unlawful. Now, for such a rule to be unlawful, the General Counsel must only prove that the rule has a “reasonable tendency” to chill employees from exercising their rights under the National Labor Relations Act. The new standard is a return to a more expansive interpretation of Section 7 Rights and erodes the balancing test that has been in place since the Board’s Boeing decision.
