Confidentialty And Disparagement

The NLRB has held that confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions in an employment agreement were not acceptable. The employees, who were mortgage bankers, had to agree to keep their beefs and concerns in-house and not to “publicly criticize, ridicule, disparage or defame the Company or its products, services, policies, directors, officers, shareholders, or employees…” The case is notable because the principles applied were those typically used to evaluate handbooks, suggesting that any document governing the employer-employee relationship could be subject to NLRB scrutiny.