The ripple effect of the Janus decision continues. Many readers are aware of the somewhat surprising Purple Communications decision where the NLRB overturned prior case law upholding employer restrictions on using company email for personal use. The union in that case persuasively argued that email has become such a common method of communication that to deny all use of company email for union messaging unfairly restrains otherwise reasonable union activity.
Now the company is using the Janus decision to strike back. In its current appeal of the NLRB decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the company, Purple Communications, is arguing that requiring employers to allow their email system to be used for union activity infringes on employers’ rights in the same way that fair share fees violate public employees’ free speech rights by forcing them to subsidize messages or positions of unions about which the employers disagree.
We’ll keep you posted on the Purple Communications decision as well as the many creative ways that the Janus decision is used in the future.
