Responding in part to the nature of the post-COVID-19 remote workplace, NLRB GC Jennifer Abruzzo has released a memo on employers’ use of electronic monitoring and automated management in the workplace. The memo also directs NLRB Regions to submit to the Division of Advice any cases involving intrusive or abusive electronic surveillance and algorithmic management that interferes with the exercise of NLRA Section 7 rights.
Citing concerns over the interference of labor organizing and bargaining communications, Abruzzo looks to broaden the scope of the NLRA. In some cases, she urges, the NLRB should find employers presumptively violate the NLRA if their technology has a tendency to interfere with or prevent employees from engaging in protected activity. Importantly, the scrutiny called for in the memo applies to all employers subject to the NLRA, not just those employers with a unionized workforce.
Some level of remote work is relatively common nowadays. Many employers, however, are struggling to engage with employees, maintain productivity, ensure security of IT systems, and otherwise manage their workplace. Of course, monitoring employees in the “workplace” is not new and not limited to remote workers. Workplace monitoring technologies, however, have advanced considerably in recent years, as noted in the memo:
It is well documented that employers are increasingly using new technologies to closely monitor and manage employees. In warehouses, for example, some employers...
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