Michigan Labor & Employment Law Blog

It's Okay to Slander Your Boss (?)

In another anti-employer ruling last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld an NLRB ruling that had struck down a non-disparagement rule Quicken Loans had in its handbook. The non-disparagement rule said employees could not "publicly criticize, ridicule, disparage or defame the company or its product services policies, directors, officers, shareholders, employees." In short, the company that has been paying employees was asking them to not hurt the hand that feeds them. 

Apparently this was too much for the anti-employer regimes at the Federal Agencies in Washington to tolerate. In fact, in the Quicken Loans case, this non-disparagement rule had never been used against an employee. So not only is it lawful to defame and disparage your employer now, it is unlawful for an employer to even have a non-enforced rule preventing defamation and disparagement.

Go figure!

Categories: Employee Handbook, National Labor Relations Board