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Unless you’ve managed to avoid any television or internet news for a while, you know that this year’s election campaign is particularly intense across the country, creating passionate opinions and actions from all sides. But what happens if those opinions spill into the workplace? For example, you have an employee that has posted items supporting a specific candidate or policy on the bulletin board above his desk. Can you ask the employee to remove them? Or is displaying political signs at work considered an employee right?
Generally speaking, a private employer can ask an employee to remove political signs—or otherwise limit political expression in the workplace—as long as they don’t run afoul of protected Section 7 rights or applicable state laws.
Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act gives employees the right to talk about the terms and conditions of their work and the right to unionize. While this law protects some political activities, it doesn’t give employees a right to display political signs at their workstations or the right to discuss, during work hours, politics that aren’t work-related.
Employers who decide to limit speech should have and follow a non-solicitation policy. It is also important to keep in mind that several states more broadly protect the political speech of employees while off duty, so employers should focus on workplace behavior and not on limiting the beliefs or protected outside activities of their employees.
For more information on how GTM keeps clients compliant with labor laws, contact us at (518) 373-4111.
