The latest thing you can’t ask employees to do: New ruling

by Christian Schappel

Yet another common employer policy has come under fire from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). It doesn’t matter if your workforce is unionized or not — if you’ve got this policy, it could be deemed illegal. 

What’s the policy? Asking workers to keep internal investigations confidential.

In a case that involved the telecommunications giant T-Mobile USA Inc., an administrative law judge for the NLRB just ruled that asking employees to keep information that’s shared/discussed during internal investigations confidential infringes upon workers’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

Employee reports harassment

Angela Agganis was a customer service rep for a T-Mobile USA store in Oakland, ME, when she went to a T-Mobile HR representative, Karen Estes, to report a sexual harassment allegation against her coach.

Afterwards, Estes informed Agganis that she would have to file an incident report. Estes then gave Agganis T-Mobile’s “Notice and Acknowledgement of Duty to Cooperate and Confidentiality,” and she told Agganis to sign and date the notice form.

The notice stated, in part:

“You should keep confidential all communications between you and the Corporate lnvestigator(s) concerning this matter throughout the pendency of this investigation unless permitted by law. This includes all questions and answers during this interview, any written statement that you provide to the investigator(s), and all other information or documents provided to the investigator(s) in connection with this matter.”

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