The Continuing Regulatory Attack on an Employer's Ability to Conduct Internal Investigations

As I've commented before, federal employment and labor regulatory agencies have been working overtime in the last several years to limit the rights of employers in a variety of settings, and perhaps in no area more than the conduct of internal investigations.

In the latest attack on an employer’s ability to run internal investigations as it sees fit, the NLRB overturned decades of precedent and now requires employers to provide unions with confidential witness statements taken during the course of a disciplinary investigation. Of course, the Obama Board members are fully aware of the chilling affect their decision will have on an employer’s ability to find out what happened in policing its own workplace. In particular, in grievance arbitrations (which  is what this decision pertains to), pre-hearing production of witness statements is likely to diminish rather than bolster the integrity of the grievance and arbitration process because of the potential for witness coercion and intimidation by union co-workers. Moreover, once witnesses being interviewed by the employer understand that the employer will be required to provide their names and statements to the union prior to the hearing, it would not be unusual for witnesses to simply to refuse to make such a statement or to talk to the employer.

The danger of witness intimidation or coercion is not fanciful --- in fact, the Board has long protected statements from witnesses that it collects in an unfair labor practice proceedings, shielding those statements from the employer until the witness actually testifies. Why this same protection should not be extended to employers' witnesses at grievance proceedings is unclear from the Board’s opinion.

Nevertheless, union employers seeking to arbitrate grievance proceedings must now factor into their process that they cannot guarantee witnesses confidentiality prior to the hearing.

The Board’s decision makes it much more difficult for employers now charged with protecting employees and avoiding liability by maintaining workplace safety and identifying and addressing workplace violence, bullying, or sexual or racial harassment.  Revealing witnesses' names and statements to co-workers will likely reduce candid, truthful statements from potential witnesses. Coupled with EEOC’s determination in that a blanket policy prohibiting witnesses from talking to other employees during the pendency of an investigation is per se retaliatory, this NLRB decision further erodes an employer’s ability to talk frankly with its work force to ferret out and correct employee misconduct.

UPDATE:  This decision, along with numerous others, apparently has now been invalidated (pending appeal) by the DC Court of Appeals opinion referenced here.