Last July, I cautioned employers about the NLRB’s decision in Banner Estrella Medical Center. In that case, the NLRB held that an employer’s request to employees not to discuss a workplace investigation with their coworkers while the investigation was ongoing violated the employees’ rights to engage in protected concerted activity. At the time, I wrote the following:
By prohibiting employers from requiring that workplace investigations remain confidential, your decision in Banner Estrella neuters the ability of employers to make key credibility determinations. Limiting confidentiality in this manner will severely constrain the ability of employers to conduct thorough and accurate workplace investigations, which, in turn, limits the ability of employers to stop the workplace evils they are investigating (discrimination, harassment, theft, etc.).
I’m not certain that the NLRB heeded my warning, but last week it did signal that it is backing off its unreasonable position. In a recently published advice memorandum, the NLRB’s Office of General Counsel clarified the Board’s position on confidential workplace investigations.
The GC considered the following policy:
[Employer] has a compelling interest in protecting the integrity of its investigations. In every investigation, [Employer] has a strong desire to protect witnesses from harassment, intimidation and retaliation, to keep evidence from being destroyed, to ensure that testimony is not fabricated, and to prevent a cover-up.
To assist [Employer] in achieving these objectives, we must maintain the investigation and our role in it in strict confidence. If we do not maintain such confidentiality, we may be subject to disciplinary action up to and including immediate termination.
In the opinion of the NLRB’s Office of General Counsel, this policy’s blanket confidentiality restrictions placed on workplace investigations violated employees’ rights to engage in protected, concerted activity. The Office of GC believed that while the first paragraph is perfectly legal, the second is overly restrictive. In its place, the Office of GC suggested provided substitute language that would pass muster under Section 7. Specifically, he suggested that replacing the last two sentences of the policy with the following language would render the policy legal:
[Employer] may decide in some circumstances that in order to achieve these objectives, we must maintain the investigation and our role in it in strict confidence. If [Employer] reasonably imposes such a requirement and we do not maintain such confidentiality, we may be subject to disciplinary action up to and including immediate termination.
In other words, if an employer makes confidentiality discretionary, on an investigation-by-investigation basis, the policy would pass Section 7 scrutiny.
Some may herald this opinion as a victory for employers. To me, its a difference without a distinction. All workplace investigation should be confidential. Otherwise, an employer can lawfully carry out its obligation to conduct an untainted investigation. Even if you have the suggested “discretionary” language in your harassment or workplace misconduct policy, you should nevertheless exercise that discretion in every investigation.. So, I ask, if every investigation should be confidential, what is the harm in providing for mandatory confidentiality in a policy?
I applaud the NLRB’s Office of General Counsel for offering employers suggested language. I still believe, however, that the NLRB fails to understand the importance of confidentiality in workplace investigations, and further fails to understand the realities of how workplace investigations work.
[Hat tip: Lorene Schaefer’s Win-Win HR]