I think most looked at this poll as if we were " in the shoes of the employees" who had to purchase the handheld device or cell phones and responded with the "unfairness" factor and choose "no". However in my opinion, as an HR professional if the job functions required the use and/or purchase of such device in order to perform the job duties then we need to ask a couple of questions.

• What is the company's policy on reimbursement?

• If the employee needs to "communicate with clients 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week" how does that affect their compensation?

• What is the legal aspect if the employee is unable to comply with the president's request?

The question whether his request is legal will then be based on any federal, state or local laws which can justify the President's actions as illegal. Webster's dictionary defines "illegal" as "not according to or authorized by law" and based on location we would need to determine if there are laws, cases, policies and/or procedures to justify this as nothing more that "unfair practice".
Based on what I have read in the course material my response would remain the same.