More Freedom with Employee Handbooks
Employers can expect the National Labor Relations Board to subject their employee handbooks to far less scrutiny than in the past. For instance, employee-handbook civility rules will generally be found valid. Lawful civility rules might state, for example:
Behavior that is rude, condescending or otherwise socially unacceptable is prohibited.
Disparaging the company's employees is prohibited.
Employees may not post any statements, photographs, video or audio that reasonably could be viewed as disparaging to workers.
Rules against defamation or misrepresentation are also generally allowed. Examples of such rules are:
Misrepresenting the company's products, services or employees is prohibited.
E-mail messages that are defamatory are prohibited.
This means if you want to add a civility statement in your handbook you can now update the language in your Employee Handbook to include it.