Supreme Court holds NLRB recess appointments invalid. Chaos ensues?

This morning, in NLRB v. Noel Canning, the U.S. Supreme Court held that President Obama exceeded his authority in making recess appointment to fill vacancies on the NLRB in 2012. 

A copy of the opinion is here: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-1281_bodg.pdf

If you read the early analysis around the Web, you will see people calling this opinion “narrow” and “limited.” Make no mistake. If you are an employer, this case is huge. It likely means that every case decided by the NLRB during the time of the recess appointments (January 2012 – July 2013) is void. That’s a whole bunch of NLRB decisions out the window, including some of its cutting edge, and controversial, decisions on issues such as social media and protected concerted activity. 

Stay tuned for more analysis of this critical Supreme Court decision. 

The Supreme Court’s opinion on cell phone privacy is a must-read for all employers

It’s a rare day that I write a post of which the vast majority is a 900-word quote from a court opinion. Yesterday’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Riley v. California [pdf], however, is significant enough to cede my space to the words of Chief Justice Roberts:

Cell phones differ in both a quantitative and a qualitative sense from other objects.… The term “cell phone” is itself misleading shorthand; many of these devices are in fact minicomputers that also happen to have the capacity to be used as a telephone. They could just as easily be called cameras, video players, rolodexes, calendars, tape recorders, libraries, diaries, albums, televisions, maps, or newspapers.

One of the most notable distinguishing features of modern cell phones is their immense storage capacity.… Most people cannot lug around every piece of mail they have received for the past several months, every picture they have taken, or every book or article they have read—nor would they have any reason to attempt to do so.…

But the possible intrusion on privacy is not physically limited in the same way when it comes to cell phones. The current top-selling smart phone has a standard capacity of 16 gigabytes (and is available with up to 64 gigabytes). Sixteen gigabytes translates to millions of pages of text, thousands of pictures, or hundreds of videos.… Cell phones couple that capacity with the ability to store many different types of information: Even the most basic phones that sell for less than $20 might hold photographs, picture messages, text messages, Internet browsing history, a calendar, a thousand entry phone book, and so on.… We expect that the gulf between physical practicability and digital capacity will only continue to widen in the future.

The storage capacity of cell phones has several interrelated consequences for privacy. First, a cell phone collects in one place many distinct types of information—an address, a note, a prescription, a bank statement, a video—that reveal much more in combination than any isolated record. Second, a cell phone’s capacity allows even just one type of information to convey far more than previously possible. The sum of an individual’s private life can be reconstructed through a thousand photographs labeled with dates, locations, and descriptions; the same cannot be said of a photograph or two of loved ones tucked into a wallet. Third, the data on a phone can date back to the purchase of the phone, or even earlier. A person might carry in his pocket a slip of paper reminding him to call Mr. Jones; he would not carry a record of all his communications with Mr. Jones for the past several months, as would routinely be kept on a phone. 

Finally, there is an element of pervasiveness that characterizes cell phones but not physical records. Prior to the digital age, people did not typically carry a cache of sensitive personal information with them as they went about their day. Now it is the person who is not carrying a cell phone, with all that it contains, who is the exception.According to one poll, nearly three-quarters of smart phone users report being within five feet of their phones most of the time, with 12% admitting that they even use their phones in the shower. See Harris Interactive, 2013 Mobile Consumer Habits Study (June 2013).… Today … it is no exaggeration to say that many of the more than 90% of American adults who own a cell phone keep on their person a digital record of nearly every aspect of their lives—from the mundane to the intimate.… 

Although the data stored on a cell phone is distinguished from physical records by quantity alone, certain types of data are also qualitatively different. An Internet search and browsing history, for example, can be found on an Internet-enabled phone and could reveal an individual’s private interests or concerns—perhaps a search for certain symptoms of disease, coupled with frequent visits to WebMD. Data on a cell phone can also reveal where a person has been. Historic location information is a standard feature on many smart phones and can reconstruct someone’s specific movements down to the minute, not only around town but also within a particular building.…

Mobile application software on a cell phone, or “apps,” offer a range of tools for managing detailed information about all aspects of a person’s life. There are apps for Democratic Party news and Republican Party news; apps for alcohol, drug, and gambling addictions; apps for sharing prayer requests; apps for tracking pregnancy symptoms; apps for planning your budget; apps for every conceivable hobby or pastime; apps for improving your romantic life. There are popular apps for buying or selling just about anything, and the records of such transactions may be accessible on the phone indefinitely. There are over a million apps available in each of the two major app stores; the phrase “there’s an app for that” is now part of the popular lexicon. The average smart phone user has installed 33 apps, which together can form a revealing montage of the user’s life.… 

To further complicate the scope of the privacy interests at stake, the data a user views on many modern cell phones may not in fact be stored on the device itself.… Cloud computing is the capacity of Internet-connected devices to display data stored on remote servers rather than on the device itself. Cell phone users often may not know whether particular information is stored on the device or in the cloud, and it generally makes little difference.… Moreover, the same type of data may be stored locally on the device for one user and in the cloud for another.

Riley is a 4th Amendment search-and-seizure case. It’s not an employment case. So, why, you ask, is it so important? For the first time, our highest court is recognizing, in great detail, the significant privacy interests we expect in our mobile devices. Does your company have a cell phone or mobile device policy? Does it explain to your employees that they are giving up certain expectations of privacy if they accept your phone or connect their own phones to your network? In light of Riley, if you don’t have this policy containing these disclaimers, you better, because courts are going to become increasingly hostile to claims that individuals do not have privacy expectations in their mobile devices.

There's no such thing as a free lunch, unless you're the NLRB

Let’s say you’re a popular Kansas City barbecue chain that provides employees the benefit of a free meal during each employee’s shift. Let’s say a labor organization, upset at your low wages, organizes a one-day strike in the hopes of “encouraging” you to raise your employees’ rate of pay to $15 an hour. Your employees exercise their rights under the National Labor Relations Act to walk of the job for a day in support of a demand for higher wages, and then exercise their right to return to work the following day. But, when they return to work, the free-lunch benefit they had been receiving is no longer available.

In Gates & Sons Barbeque of Missouri, Inc. (June 17, 2014), and NLRB Administrative Law Judge concluded that the employer’s elimination of the free-lunch benefit violated the NLRA as retaliation against the employees for their one-day wage strike:

Shipley, the store manager with authority to continue or discontinue the meal benefit, told employees that if they participated in the strike they would “feel [his] wrath,” “might has well find another place of employment” and would be terminated.… These statements are more than sufficient to establish that the Respondent bore animosity towards the protected strike activity, but the timing of the action makes the case even stronger. The Respondent first notified employees that the meal benefit was being discontinued immediately upon their return to duties after the strike.

As a remedy, the ALJ ordered the employer to reinstate the free-meal benefit. 

We’ve looked at a lot of protected concerted activity cases in the last few years. Unlike the social media and workplace communication cases, this one is pretty straight forward. You can’t take away a benefit or otherwise retaliate against employees when they strike over wages. But, this case raises a deeper point. By all appearances, this employer did not know this basic principle of labor law. Employers have an obligation to educate themselves about the laws that govern their relationship with their employees. This case was low-hanging fruit for the Board. Don’t leave your fruit hanging. 

The united colors of harassment claims

Let’s take a look at two recent settlements of harassment claims brought by the EEOC:

1. A Tampa, Florida, bank paid $300,000, resulting from a manager’s ongoing harassment of subordinate female employees, which included repeatedly trapping a 20-year-old behind the teller counter with his body, telling a woman she should wear a bathing suit to work, regularly staring at women’s breasts, and frequently caressing and grabbing a female employee.
2. A Charlotte, North Carolina, security-services company paid $155,000, resulting from a two managers’ repeated harassment of subordinate male employees, which included making offensive sexual comments, soliciting nude pictures, asking one to undress in front of him, soliciting sex in exchange for promotions, forcing accompaniment to a gay bar while on duty, touching certain employees’ chest and genitals.

It’s difficult to compare settlements in different cases based on value. They involve different parties, lawyers, judges, and allegations. Yet, it strikes me that if one compares the offensiveness of the misconduct alleged in these two cases, number two seems a whole lot more egregious than number one. Yet, number one paid double. I’ll ignore making the generalization that we, as a society, view same-sex harassment differently than the harassment of women by men, and, instead, conclude that similar cases offer lend to different results, often for arbitrary reasons.

I’ll leave you with the words of Lynette A. Barnes, EEOC regional attorney, who comments that employers need to halt all workplace sexual harassment:

All workers have the right to work in an environment free from sexual harassment. No one should have to put up with sexual comments or touching while they are just trying to make a living. Employers need to halt or prevent it—and the best prevention is training supervisors and managers on how to put a stop to such misconduct as soon as it appears.

I’ll let you decide about which of these two cases she made this observation.

Is it ethical to check jurors’ social media accounts?

Every jury trial starts with what is called voir dire—a question-and-answer session between the lawyers and the pool of potential jurors. As lawyers, we are trying to deselect those jurors whom we feel would be unfairly biased against our case or our client. It is much more an art than a science, and the more information we can gather about potential jurors, the more educated of a decision we can make that a juror is not the right fit for our case. 

Recently, the American Bar Association made this information gathering a little bit easier. In an ethics opinion (h/t: ABC News), the ABA gave lawyers the green light to view jurors’ and potential jurors’ publicly available Internet information, which, for example, could include their Facebook or Twitter musing. 

The Internet is a treasure trove of information about jurors. You could learn their political leanings, religious background, and all about their jobs and families. In short, you could learn the entire backstory of a “connected” juror.

But, do you want to? Just because this information gathering is ethical does not mean it’s strategically wise. By using the Internet as a basis for questions about a potential juror, you will clue the entire pool of jurors in on the fact that you’ve been trolling online for information about them. They might view your ethical conduct as a creepy invasion of their privacy. Voir dire is as much about you learning about the jury as it is about the jury learning about you. In other words, you don’t want to piss off the jury during voir dire. If you lose credibility before the trial even starts, what chance do you have to win the case?

So, lawyers, my take is that Facebook-ing potential jurors presents more of a risk to damaging your credibility with the jury than any benefit you will receive from learning information to help with the inexact science of voir dire. And, if you choose to research jurors online, keep that choice private, and don’t let the jury know you’ve been trolling them. It’s not worth the risk of the jury punishing you for it from the privacy of their deliberations.

WIRTW #326 (the “dads” edition)

Earlier this week, I wrote about the importance of work/life balance to working dads. Today I thought I’d share some other thoughts on the issue I found on the Web this week:

• For Father’s Day, Get Rid of Working-Father Myths — from Families and Work Institute Blog
• The Rise of the Hands-On Dad — from Harvard Business Review
• Work-Life Balance: A Bad Concept That Ignores The Real Problem — from TLNT

Here’s the rest of what I read this week:

Discrimination

• EEOC’s David Lopez Addresses Connecticut Bar Association — from Dan Schwartz’s Connecticut Employment Law Blog
• EEOC sues a nonprofit that assists the disabled for, yep, disability discrimination — from Eric Meyer’s The Employer Handbook Blog
• Defending EEOC Charges: “Don’t Use An Attorney Unless Really Necessary” Says Veteran Defender — from Employment Discrimination Report
• Gender and Reverse Discrimination in the Workplace — from Ohio HR Law
• Obama to Sign Executive Order Prohibiting Sexual Orientation Discrimination — from Phil Miles’s Lawffice Space
• Is the EEOC the new NLRB? — from Michigan Employment Law Connection
• Does an Employer Have an Obligation to Provide Accommodations to Pregnant Employees? Don't Follow This Employer's Lead — from FMLA Insights

Social Media & Workplace Technology

• Social media applicant searches too risky — from Technology for HR
• Every Legal App for iPhone and iPad — from Lawyerist
• Jurors Behaving Badly — from Molly DiBianca’s Delaware Employment Law Blog
• Tweet served as evidence of initial interest confusion in trade dress case — from Internet Cases
• Majority of US House supports overhaul of email privacy protections — from The Verge

HR & Employee Relations

• Beware of employees who are too eager to please — from Robin Shea’s Employment & Labor Insider
• Non-Competes on the Rise? — from Smooth Transitions
• What You Need to Know Before Signing a Noncompete Agreement — from Lifehacker
• The Wildcard in Noncompete Litigation – The Judge — from Michigan Employment Law Advisor
• Divided Appellate Court Voids Employer’s Non-Compete Covenants Because One Employee Did Not Sign — from Trading Secrets
• How to Create an Awesome Company Culture (No Perks Necessary) — from Evil HR Lady, Suzanne Lucas
• Top 10 Things Employers Should Never Do — from Blogging4Jobs

Wage & Hour

• Wage and Hour Lawsuits Against McDonalds, Too: Fast-Food Workers Are Fighting Back — from Employment Lawyer Blog
• Interns Win One, Lose One, In Having Misclassification Cases Conditionally Certified In New York — from Employment Class Action Blog
• Another Example of Owner Liability for Unpaid Wages and Liquidated Damages for Employee Misclassification — from Employment Matters Blog
• Must Know Facts for Hiring Teenagers this Summer — from Wage & Hour - Development & Highlights
• July 4th and other Paid Holiday Trends — from ERC Insights Blog
• FLSA Settlements – Doesn’t Mean It is Over Yet — from Wage & Hour Defense Institute
• Are you aware the Feds are about to rattle your world? — from Mike Haberman’s Omega HR Solutions
• DOL to Revise Definition of “Spouse” in FMLA Regulations — from Health Employment and Labor
• In the News -- Paid Leave — from Workplace Prof Blog

Labor Relations

• Board GC Seeks To Change Work Email Rule — from Labor Relations Today
• NLRB Asserts Jurisdiction Over a Charter School in New York — from New York Labor and Employment Law Report
• NLRB Strikes Down Employee Conduct Rules and Non-Disclosure Agreement, Reminding Employers to Be Mindful of Their Policies — from Hunton Employment & Labor Law Perspectives™
• Here’s Your [Expletive] Latte! — from The Employment Brief
• Confiscating Union Literature and Engaging in Surveillance of Union Activities Invalidates Election — from Vorys on Labor

Firing of county employee teaches important lesson about use of mobile technology

We love our phones. We are an iPhone society. I’ve referred to the phenomenon as “iPhone-ification.” Do you know that there are more mobile phones than people in the United States? Moreover, 90% of American adults own mobile phones, and nearly 60% are “smart.”

Not these phones.

Despite the proliferation of mobile phones, and their use in work and for work, many employees still do not understand the difference between work use and personal use.

Case in point? Yesterday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Cuyahoga County suspended a supervisor for using his county-issued cell phone to send unwelcome sexual text messages to a co-worker. According to the County [pdf], the employee used his phone to flirt and text sexual innuendo, even after the recipient told him to stop.

From this story, I offer two lessons—one for employees and one for employers.

• For employees, please stop using your work phones (and that includes your own personal devices that your employer allows you to connect to its network, i.e, BYOD) for personal business that will get you in trouble at work. If you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face, don’t email it, text it, Facebook it, or otherwise send it via your phone. Just because we treat our phones like members of our families does not mean that their content are off limits to employers. They’re not. 
• For employers, communicate this message to your employees. Trust me, they don’t get it. They think the four-inch device in their pockets is theres, and what they email, text, Facebook, etc., is not your business. Spell it out, in plain English in a mobile device policy. And reinforce that message in training sessions.

Photo used with permission / original here.