Opinion ID: 798357
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Smith's Making of a Secret Recording Was Protected

Text: The Board found that the Company violated section 8(a)(3) and (1) by interrogating employees Sur, Smith, Loos, and Ing; suspending Sur and Smith; and discharging Smith. See Hawaii Tribune-Herald, 356 NLRB No. 63, at 1. It therefore ordered the Company to offer to reinstate Smith, to compensate Smith and Sur for their lost earnings, and to remove any references to the challenged disciplinary actions in their respective files. See id. at 4. According to the Board, these employees were engaged in protected concerted activity when they planned for Smith to record his meeting with Bock and when Smith made the actual recording. The Board's finding is supported by substantial evidence, and it is consistent with controlling precedent. These employees reasonably believed that the Company was going to violate Smith's rights by refusing to allow him to bring a witness to an interview that would result in disciplinary action. And, as the Board found, it was reasonable for the employees to assume that Bock would not allow a witness to attend the meeting, because Bock had refused to allow Smith to serve as a witness during a similar meeting earlier that day. Under these circumstances, the employees' decision to document what they perceived to be a potential violation of employee rights under NLRB v. J. Weingarten  qualified as protected activity. Id. at 1. The Company offers three arguments to the contrary. First, the Company claims that the employees were not engaged in protected activity, because Smith was not entitled to bring a witness to his meeting with Bock. According to the Company, Smith's mere belief that he was entitled to the presence of a witness was insufficient to trigger his rights under Weingarten, see 420 U.S. at 257 & n. 5, 95 S.Ct. 959, and there has been no finding that Smith's belief was objectively reasonable. In fact, it appears that Smith may have been incorrect in assuming he was entitled to a witness, insofar as Bock had already determined the form of discipline to impose in that meeting. See Jackson Hosp. Corp. v. NLRB, 647 F.3d 1137, 1142 (D.C.Cir.2011) (explaining that [l]ong ago the NLRB clarified that an employee has no right to bring a witness to a meeting, the sole purpose of which is to deliver a predetermined warning). The Company also points out that the Union filed, but ultimately withdrew, charges alleging that the Company had committed Weingarten violations by denying Smith access to a witness during this meeting. See Third Amended Answer 2 nn. 1, 4, Oct. 15, 2007 (documenting withdrawal of charges), II J.A. 846. The Company thus contends that the Board erred in finding that Smith, Sur, Loos, and Ing were engaged in protected activity. The Company's argument, again (as with its argument regarding Bishop), rests on an erroneous premise. These employeeslike Bishopwere proactively responding to what they reasonably and honestly believed to be an imminent unfair labor practice. They were therefore engaged in protected activity. The Board correctly reached this finding without holding that the Company had committed Weingarten violations. Second, the Company claims that Smith and his colleagues forfeited the Act's protections by engaging in unprotected activity. The NLRA does not protect all concerted activities. NLRB v. Washington Aluminum Co., 370 U.S. 9, 17, 82 S.Ct. 1099, 8 L.Ed.2d 298 (1962). Employees cannot claim the Act's protections when they engage in activities that are unlawful, violent[,] ... in breach of contract, id. (citations omitted), or otherwise `indefensible,' id. (citation omitted). The Company urged the NLRBand now urges this courtto conclude that the making of a secret audio recording is unprotected under this line of authority. The Company concedes, as it must, that there was no then-existing company policy prohibiting Smith, Sur, Loos, and Ing from planning to make, or prohibiting Smith from making, a secret audio recording. See Hawaii Tribune-Herald, 356 NLRB No. 63, at 15. The Company also concedes, as it must, that there was no state or local law prohibiting their conduct. See HAW. REV. STAT. § 803-42(b)(4). The Company thus cannot and does not claim that making the recording was unlawful, violent, or in breach of contract. Instead, the Company argues that the making of a secret audio recording is so fundamentally dishonest and deceitful that it should be deemed categorically unprotected. The Company's position is a bit perplexing in light of Company counsel's concession during oral argument that Smith would have committed no wrong had he memorized his conversation with Bock and then written it down verbatim after their meeting. In any event, the Company's argument fails, because it is foreclosed by established Board precedent. In Opryland Hotel, 323 NLRB 723, 723 n. 3 (1997), the Board expressly refused to adopt a per se rule against the making of secret audio recordings. Like the Company here, the respondent company in Opryland Hotel had no rule, prohibition, or practice against employees using or possessing tape recorders at work. Id. (citations omitted). And, in the absence of such rule, practice, or prohibition, the Board refused to hold that such possession or use constitutes ... malum in se.  Id. The Board considered the circumstances of the case and ruled that the employee who had made the recordings was entitled to reinstatement notwithstanding his secret tape recording of conversations at work. Id. In light of this directly controlling decision from the NLRB, it should be self-evident why we find unpersuasive the Company's nonbinding cases holding that the making of secret audio recordings is not protected in other employment contexts. See Pet'r's Br. at 81-83. The Board followed the appropriate, case-by-case approach adopted in Opryland Hotel. It found that, given the circumstances of this case, Sur, Smith, Loos, and Ing were engaged in protected concerted activity. That determination is reasonable, and, therefore, we must defer to it. An employer may, in different circumstances, have defensible reasons for barring secret recordings. We have no occasion to consider that question in this case. The policy here is invalid because the Company has conceded that it was promulgated solely in response to the employees' protected activity. Third, the Company suggests that Smith and his colleagues should have pursued a different approach to protecting their asserted rights. The Company points out that even the Union administrator, Cahill, did not recommend that Smith record the meeting; he recommended that Smith take notes. See Hawaii Tribune-Herald, 356 NLRB No. 63, at 10. This argument is entirely unpersuasive. The fact that the employees failed to pursue other options certainly does not make their otherwise protected activity unprotected. As the Board found, the secret audio recording was neither prohibited by company policy, proscribed by state or local law, nor barred under the Board precedent.