No Dating Co-Workers!

Next time you ask that co-worker out to dinner you have more to be nervous about than being turned down: you might lose your job. The National Labor Relations Board has given employers the green light to prohibit employees from "fraternizing" with co-workers. In Guardsmark, LCC, the Board upheld an ALJ's ruling that a private security guard company may lawfully prohibit its employees from "fraterniz[ing] ... or becom[ing] overly friendly with the client's employees or with co-employees." According to Board Members Battista, Liebman, and Shaumber, such a rule "is reasonably understood as prohibiting personal entanglements, rather than activity protected by the [National Labor Relations] Act [and] is designed 'to provide safeguards so that security will not be compromised by interpersonal relationships....'" That last part might make for some interesting scenarios (at least for those of us with active imaginations), but there is something disturbing about an employer's ability to interfere with its employees' lives outside of work.

It remains to be seen what will happen upon appeal (one would think that the union representing these employees would take this to the Court of Appeals), but this decision is yet another example of how far some will go to diminish fundamental Section 7 and Constitutional rights.