Arbitration Clauses Requiring Confidentiality Are OK, NLRB Says

Businesses that require employees to go to arbitration to resolve work-related disputes also can mandate those workers to keep mum about the proceedings, the National Labor Relations Board ruled.

The decision, released Friday, means employers can include carefully crafted confidentiality provisions in arbitration agreements, although there’s still some legal risk in doing so.

The NLRB said the confidentiality provision at California Commerce Club Inc., doing business as Commerce Hotel and Casino, restricts its workers’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act. The statute generally gives workers a right to unionize and to discuss or work together to influence terms and ...