Companies Must Rethink Handbooks in Wake of Labor Board Shift

Many companies likely must reevaluate their current workplace policies under a new National Labor Relations Board standard issued amid an increase in US labor organizing.

The NLRB’s Aug. 2 ruling in Stericycle Inc. scrapped employer-friendly standards the board set in 2017 for evaluating the legality of rules that govern a wide array of employee conduct. The agency tossed its Trump-era Boeing Co. precedent and reset its standard closer to the one it laid out in a 2004 decision, Lutheran Heritage Villa, with slight modifications.

When deciding whether a handbook or workplace policy is unlawfully restricting workers’ rights, the board ...