Federal Scrutiny of Social Media Policies – Facebook posting subject of NLRB settlement with employer

Advertisement

The much publicized case in front of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)  concerning the employer  charged by the NLRB with terminating an employee for posting disparaging comments about her supervisor on Facebook has been settled.   Bracewell & Giuliani posted the following on the National Law Review yesterday: 

 

Advertisement

On Monday, February 7, 2011, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) reached a settlement with American Medical Response of Connecticut, Inc., the employer recently charged by the NLRB with terminating an employee in violation of federal labor law for posting disparaging comments about her supervisor on Facebook. The NLRB complaint alleged that the employer’s policy regarding “Blogging and Internet Posting” was overly-broad and unlawfully interfered with employees’ rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to engage in “concerted, protected activity.” As written, the challenged policy stated that “Employees are prohibited from making disparaging, discriminatory or defamatory comments when discussing the Company or the employee’s superiors, co-workers and/or competitors.”

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the employer agreed to revise this policy to allow employees to discuss wages, hours, and working conditions with co-workers outside of the workplace, and agreed to refrain from disciplining or firing employees for engaging in such discussions. The matter of the employee’s discharge was resolved through a separate, private agreement between the employee and the employer.

Advertisement

Why is this important?

The NLRB’s involvement in this case indicates an increased focus on the enforcement of employee rights under Section 7 of the NLRA and on employers’ social media policies. Section 7 protects employees regardless of whether their workplace is unionized; therefore all employers must be cognizant of policies and practices that might be interpreted to limit employees’ right to engage in concerted action.

Advertisement

Actions needed?

The NLRB’s stated position on this issue is that employees are allowed to discuss the conditions of their employment with co-workers on Facebook, or other social media websites, to the same extent they are permitted to do so at the water cooler or a restaurant. To this end, policies or practices which could be interpreted as limiting such right should be modified to include a statement that the policy will not be construed or applied in any manner that interferes with employees’ rights under the NLRA.

© 2011 Bracewell & Giuliani LLP

Published by

National Law Forum

A group of in-house attorneys developed the National Law Review on-line edition to create an easy to use resource to capture legal trends and news as they first start to emerge. We were looking for a better way to organize, vet and easily retrieve all the updates that were being sent to us on a daily basis.In the process, we’ve become one of the highest volume business law websites in the U.S. Today, the National Law Review’s seasoned editors screen and classify breaking news and analysis authored by recognized legal professionals and our own journalists. There is no log in to access the database and new articles are added hourly. The National Law Review revolutionized legal publication in 1888 and this cutting-edge tradition continues today.