DETROIT – In many workplaces, it's common to see a poster which spells out what an employee's rights are under the National Labor Relations Act.
A judge has decided Quicken Loans and other companies owned by Dan Gilbert are in violation of those rights. The Administrative Law judge ordered the companies to cease and desist 24 guidelines for employees.
Quicken said its employee "Big Book" was designed to protect the company's private information and reputation. However, labor watchdogs said the handbook's guidelines could be used to silence or punish employees looking to form a union.
For social media conduct, the company instructed:
"If it doesn't belong on the front page of the New York Times, don't put it online."
For emails, the company instructed:
"Company ... emails ... are to be used solely for the company's business purposes."
Portions of the handbook preventing employees from posting offensive images in their workspace were criticized, too.
Quicken called the judge's ruling a "dangerous precedent," saying it was "disconcerting the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found fault with common, rational, and sensible workplace policies that no reasonable employee would object to in any manner."
While defending the policies, Quicken did rescind the book and sent out a memo telling employees to ignore it back in December before this ruling.
Quicken now promises to challenge the ruling in court.
Here is the company's full statement followed by the judge's full ruling:
"The NLRB, and its administrative judges, are setting a dangerous precedent with this ruling. It is disconcerting that the NLRB found fault with common, rational and sensible workplace policies that no reasonable employee would object to in any manner, such as prohibiting team members from posting offensive content on social media or using company resources for personal business. Even more disturbing, the NLRB found that our company's policies related to restricting the public distribution of private client information was a violation of labor regulations. Not only is this outrageous and misguided, but the NLRB ruling conflicts with several other sensible federal and state laws that were enacted to protect highly sensitive and private information that lenders routinely obtain from borrowers during the loan process. This ruling exceeds the boundaries of rationality on numerous levels and we will clearly be challenging it in the court system where we expect to receive a hearing from a judge who will be guided by the laws of the United States and sagacity."