Skip to content Skip to footer

Table of contents

Confidentiality and conflicts of interest — Tennessee Templates

Confidentiality of company information

A statement in one form or another may be essential to safeguarding the employer’s proprietary information, depending on the work environment and the employees’ access to confidential information. While a written confidentiality policy does not have the same legal force as a confidentiality agreement, it will nonetheless serve to remind employees of the company’s expectation that certain information should not be disclosed to others outside the business or used by employees to their own advantage. 

Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), employees have the right to engage in concerted protected activity. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) interprets that right to include an employee’s right to discuss wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment with fellow employees, as well as with nonemployees, such as union representatives. If an employer’s confidentiality policy either specifically prohibits employee discussions of terms and conditions of employment—such as wages, hours, or workplace complaints—or that employees would reasonably understand to prohibit such discussions, then the NLRB will find that such a policy violates the NLRA. Therefore, any confidentiality policy must be carefully drafted to avoid such prohibitions on an employee’s right to...


Please call us at (312) 960-9400 if this is an error or if you have any questions.