Huffington Post
December 11th, 2014
In a significant win for labor unions, federal regulators ruled Thursday that employers can't prevent their workers from using company email to organize and discuss their working conditions outside of work.
The decision issued by the National Labor Relations Board gives workers a statutory right to use work email systems for those purposes after hours, so long as they already have access to work email. The ruling overturns a Bush-era ruling by a more conservative labor board that said workers have no such right.
The outcome of the case, Purple Communications, Inc. and Communications Workers of America, is significant because it assures that pro-union employees can easily communicate with their colleagues about organizing. Aside from the right to pursue unionization, the ruling would also guarantee that workers can discuss basic things like pay and benefits via their work email without their bosses stopping them.