Many employers require their employees to maintain the confidentiality of their wages and/or salary and try to prevent their employees from discussing their wages with other employees. However, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Flex Frac Logistics, LLC v. NLRB recently held that a non-union employer committed an unfair labor practice and violated the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) by requiring its employees to sign an overly broad confidentiality policy which stated that confidential information included information related to “personnel information and documents”. The Court held that this policy could reasonably be interpreted to prohibit the discussion of employee wages which infringes upon the employees’ Section 7 rights under the NLRA. Accordingly, employers, even non-union employers, should review their current policies to ensure compliance with the NLRA in this regard. We do note, however, that managers and supervisors are not protected by the NLRA and, therefore, this case would not apply to those individuals. We do caution employers, however, to ensure that any individuals who are designated as a manager and/or a supervisor are done so in compliance with the NLRA.
