NRLB Redefines 'Your Own Time'

Doc Ruby writes "The U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled to ban off-duty worker 'fraternization,' at the employer's discretion. So getting together for a beer after work can now be prohibited by the boss. With IT workers so commonly producing some of our best work 'after hours,' even at home or in restaurants/bars, will this ruling come back to bite employers in the IT industry? Can they really stop you from talking with your cubicle neighbor on the bus home, if they can't even stop you from reading Slashdot while on the clock?"

Comments

Re:Why are we allowing work to control us?

[Zeinfeld]

People are so obsessed with the numbers that show on their paycheck that they forget that their work habbits are creeping into their personal lives and causing serious issues.

You appear to misunderstand what the NRLB is chartered to do. Its purpose is to protect the rights of employees to organize and form unions. It does not have a charter that allows it to rule on employment contracts in general.

The real issue here is that the Bush administration has a history of attempting to make it easier for employers like WalMart to prevent attempts by employees to unionize and demand a fair wage for their work. This in turn hurts taxpayers like you and me who are forced to subsidize corporations like WalMart that pay so little that most of their staff are on welfare. I don't shop at Walmart but I still have to pay their employees, how screwed up is that?

What happened in this case was that a security firm tried to stop their employees from organizing by prohibiting them from meeting outside work. It has nothing at all to do with professionalism or the image of the company. The only reason for the rules was to stop workers from organizing.

The Bush administration appointees on the NRLB supported a rulling that would allow the security firm to effectively prevent employees from organizing outside work through the pretext of prohibiting dating.

I don't think it is at all likely that this type of rule would ever come to IT. The industry does not have a history of organizing and if people were to decide they needed to organize they could do so through the Internet if there were attempts to prohibit meeting in bars. Trying this type of stunt would be the type of thing that would be likely to start people organizing.