Social media sites becoming NSFW
Employees who post disparaging workplace comments online had better watch out — their jobs could be in trouble. Social media is evolving into a tempestuous battleground of labor law. And it has exploded into full view after recent legal cases revealed how New York area workers were fired for ranting online about their workplace.
Some of these dismissals were later deemed unlawful by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an independent government agency that received 129 cases involving social media complaints in the workplace last year, up from a handful prior.
In fact, the National Labor Relations Act protects some workplace discussions — specifically, “concerted activities for mutual aid or protection” — on social media sites, much the same as conversations around the water cooler.
But forget about griping to co-workers about the sloppy work habits of an- other employee. It probably isn’t protected, according to Ed Zalewski, an expert at compliance company J.J. Keller & Associates. The same goes for complaining about pay raises to family members through social media.
On the other hand, Zalewski added, a discussion among co-workers about the “unfair enforcement” of a dress code, with an expressed desire to change that arrangement, is likely to be protected.
Still, Tim Bukher, an attorney at Handal & Morofsky in New York who specializes in Internet law, says that as far as online ranting goes, New York is an “at-will” employment state. As a default, an employer can fire an employee for any reason.
There are exceptions, however. Bukher offers the example of an employee who has a labor-union contract.
In one case last year, the NLRB sided with an ambulance driver for America Medical Response of Connecticut, who was allegedly fired for posting negative comments about a supervisor on her Facebook page. The NLRB complaint also alleged that the company maintained overly broad rules in its employee handbook on blogging, Internet posting and communications between employees, and that it had illegally denied union representation to the employee.
Then consider computer giant Apple, which lays down clear rules on social media for its employees: Blogs, wikis, social networks and other tools are not permitted for communication among employees.
Apple’s policy document (which was leaked to the media late last year after a fired Apple employee unsuccessfully appealed to the NLRB) specifies: “The lines between public and private, and personal and professional, are blurred in online social networks. Respect your audience and your co-workers. This includes not only the obvious (no ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, etc.) but also topics that may be considered offensive or inflammatory. In sum, use your best judgment.”