The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s decision upholding the National Labor Relations Board in Flex Frac Logistics v. NLRB relies almost entirely on speculation about remote possibilities while ignoring very real, existing concerns about employee privacy. This makes it more than a little surprising. Legal departments should review longstanding employee personnel policies.
Like most companies, Flex Frac Logistics (a non-union company based in Fort Worth) sought, as many employers do, to protect its own confidential information and that of its employees. To that end, according to the Fifth Circuit’s opinion,employees signed a confidentiality clause requiring that they avoid unauthorized disclosure to third parties of confidential information, including “our financial information, including costs [and] prices” and “personnel information and documents.”
