In Purple Communications, Inc.  (21-CA-095151, 21-RC-091531 and 21-RC-091584) Corona and Long Beach, CA, April 30, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board has signaled that it will review again the issue of whether employees have a statutory right under the National Labor Relations Act to use their employers' email systems. The Board decided the issue previously in 2007, but that was then, and this is now. Bottom line: President Obama's NLRB appointees may decide to open up employers' email systems for union activists to use.  

In Purple Communications, the Board issued a Notice and Invitation to File Briefs, which invited the parties and interested amici to file briefs on the issue of whether the Board should reconsider its conclusion in Register Guard, 351 NLRB 1110 (2007), enfd. in relevant part and remanded sub nom. Guard Publishing v. NLRB, 571 F.3d 53 (D.C. Cir. 2009), that “employees have no statutory right to use the[ir] Employer’s e-mail system for Section 7 purposes.”  The Board further invited the parties and amici to address several related questions regarding the appropriate standard if Register Guard is overruled: permissible restrictions on employees’ email use; the impact on the employer of employees’ email use; the significance of employees’ access to personal devices, social media accounts, and personal email accounts; and any technological issues that the Board should consider.  Briefs are due to be filed with the Board by June 16, 2014, with the parties permitted to file responsive briefs by June 30, 2014.  Charge and Petition filed by Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO.