As great as their joint employer standard reversal is, it appears that the Trump-era NLRB is not stopping there! In a separate ruling also released yesterday, the NLRB reversed the standard the agency created in its 2004 Lutheran Heritage Village-Livonia decision that employer policies that could be reasonably construed by an employee to prohibit or chill the employees’ exercise of section 7 rights violated the National Labor Relations Act – even if such policies did not explicitly prohibit protected activities or were not applied by the employer to restrict such activities. Now, and again by a 3-2 vote, the Board established a new standard for evaluating employer handbook policies whereby both the nature and extent of the potential impact on NLRA rights and legitimate justifications associated with the rule are to be taken into account. Toward that end, the Board announced that it will categorize workplace rules into three categories depending on whether the rule is deemed lawful, unlawful, or warrants individualized scrutiny – a change that should significantly relieve confusion under the “reasonably construed” standard! And, some more good news came with yesterday’s publication of a new request for information on whether the Board should revise the quickie election rule. The comment period will be open until February 12, 2018. Just as an aside, the request for information was approved on a 3-2 vote. This week was packed with significant decisions and much action by the NLRB because the term for Chairman Philip Miscimarra expires this week and he has announced he is not interested in being reappointed. Consequently, the board will often find itself caught in a 2-2 tie vote until a new Trump nominee is confirmed by the US Senate.