Enforcement Is Key as Employers Parse NLRB Severance Deal Advice

Employers want to see how the federal labor board will apply a new ban on overly broad gag orders in severance agreements—including old ones—before forging ahead with their own enforcement.

National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued guidance last week, seeking to clarify February’s McLaren Macomb decision that outlawed overly broad confidentiality and nondisparagement provisions in severance agreements. Maintaining or enforcing old pacts with now-illegal gag orders would also count as a violation of federal labor law, she said in the guidance.

While the McLaren Macomb ruling raised widespread confusion among employers and their attorneys about how the ...