A recent NLRB Division of Advice memorandum gives employers a useful roadmap for handling on-site demonstrations that are driven by political or social causes rather than workplace conditions. The takeaway: not every group employee action is “protected concerted activity,” and discipline for a genuine policy violation can be lawful, but the margin for error is narrow, especially in California.
Two Microsoft employees helped organize an on-campus protest tied to the “No Azure for Apartheid” campaign and the group No Tech for Apartheid. The event, which included a walkout, vigil, speaker series, and fundraiser at the company’s Redmond campus, was meant to pressure Microsoft to end its Azure cloud contracts with the Israeli government and to raise awareness and funds related to the conflict in Gaza. Security told the organizers they could not hold the event on company property because it was advertised to non-employees, was unauthorized, and was sponsored by an outside organization, and asked them to move it to nearby public property. The organizers went ahead anyway, and the company terminated them for violating policy and failing to follow security directives.
The National Labor Relations Act protects employees, whether union or not, when they act together for “mutual aid or protection,” meaning to improve their terms and conditions of employment. The Advice memo concluded the protest fell outside that protection because...
Millions of Aussies will be cheering Ben Roberts-Smith after seeing his publicity campaign. But we must leave all these matters to a criminal court to decide – this time beyond reasonable doubt.