Regulating Workplace Conduct Continues to Challenge Employers

A recent finding by a National Labor Relations Administrative Law Judge has highlighted the inherent thorniness of establishing workplace standards. The case was General Motors Components Holdings, LLC , Case No. 07‐CA‐293340, JD‐09‐24 (February 8, 2024), in which the company was alleged to have violated the federal labor law by maintaining certain workplace rules. Notably, the challenge was directed at the rules themselves and not to any unlawful application of them. The challenged rules included prohibition of the “making or publishing of malicious statements concerning any employee, the Company, or its products.” A prior rule, prohibiting “the making or publishing of false, vicious, or malicious statements concerning any employe [ sic ], supervisor, the Company or its products,” had been in effect since the early 1970s.